The Sky Files
by WritingWoman
Summary: An alien drops out of the B.E.Well, and a certain demon lord needs a mortal healer. When Rin is taken by a mysterious entity, an uneasy alliance is made. Will Sessho and the alien rescue them in time?Or will he kill the alien first?Warning: tail obsession
1. Shuttles

_**Title:**_

_WritingWoman: I do not own Inuyasha. I do own Sky, Mara Rose, Rayanne, and possibly other people's souls. A few things before we begin: Two chapters occur before Inuyasha's gang appears. But when they do show up, the story revolves around them, and it really picks up and becomes quite funny, in my humble opinion, and those of my friends who read it before I got it onto here. Two, Sesshomaru has both arms. It makes it more fun to write this. And that means… I own one of Sesshomaru's arms!_

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She stepped out of the Outcraft, and took a deep breath of the carefully monitored oxygen supply. 'Finally!' The Outcraft had been overflowing with people, most of them not even stopping here. Easily avoiding the craters and jagged rocks, she made her way to the back of the Craft, then waited for her formal instructions and the directions to the site. While she waited, her gaze wandered around this dried up, dusty Old World.

Her name was Anata Sky Pyre, and she was seventeen years old. To her friends and family, she was known as Sky. It was fitting, because her moods could change as suddenly as the weather off a Station, and she was made up of a multitude of colors. Her skin was a golden tan, from spending too much time outside on planets. If her mother had had her way, Sky would be spending all her time inside teaching, back at the Station. She had inherited her hair from her rigid, overprotective mother, while her eyes had come from her never-around, freedom-loving father. Her hair was black in the sunlight, bluish-black in the firelight, a deep, deep red if she was outside when a sun was setting, and appeared to be black threaded with gold if a moon shone down on her. Sky's eyes were silver, with jagged streaks of black lightening radiating from the pupil to the edges of the iris.

While her coloring may be unusual to anyone from our time, she was just another Mix in hers. Any looks she might have garnered would have been for her very behind-in-fashion hairstyle, that her mother would faint to see. Her multicolored hair was pulled tight on the top of her head, then rolled into little spirals near the nape of the neck. It may have been out of fashion at the moment, but since this planet had turned into a dust ball, it had become very hot, and with her long hair rolled up neatly at the back of her head, she was just a little bit color then the rest of the people here.

The time would be the year (for us) 5329, known to them as L.E. 3299.

And the dusty, dried up planet?

Well, we called it Earth.

But in the year 2030, everything on Earth began to fall apart. The ten countries, who had lived in a general peace since WWIII, suddenly turned on one another. Well, all of them except for Acire, a country formerly known as the United States of America. After the dust of WWIII had settled, America had come out fairly well, with much more land then before. It was proposed, by an up and coming senator, that a new name was needed, and the name suggested and finally agreed upon was Acire. A few more years passed, and that up and coming senator was elected President in a landslide victory. It was during her first term as President that the world's order became chaos, and it was her idea that they leave.

Thanks to key spies all around the world, the build up of tension had been noted, and planned for. Space travel was the answer. When the final straw came, the Acirians were ready, and they invited anyone else to come with them to the stars. Most in the other countries refused; they didn't trust the new technology. But some did go, to the Station far from Earth. They were the only ones that lived. The end of the war was seen by no living eyes, for they all had blown one another up, or killed off the enemies with deadly diseases.

Three thousand, two hundred, ninety-nine years later, the Earth was deemed clean of any and all residual diseases or radiation, a new ozone was installed, and the planet was filled with live-giving oxygen. Many were assigned the task of bringing the Home World back to life. That wasn't what Sky was there for.

She was there to dig up the past.

Along with hundreds of other humans, she was to be stationed somewhere on Earth, and sift through the dirt of ages and warfare, looking for the remnants of the primitive society in the area, to see if anything had survived the multiple bombs.

A light went on above her head, pulling her out of her study of her new home, where she was to live for the next five years. Sky saw her familiar blue pouch floating down to her, with a small cranchite attached to the drawstring. Snatching it up, she turned the screen of the cranchite on, and read her assignment.

'**Anata Sky Pyre: Hyincean-Dransorthe Mix **

**Species: Human**

**Job: Old Worlds Archeologist**

**Hair Color: Black, Dark Red, Dark Blue, Gold Highlights**

**Eye Color: Silver, Black Streaks**

**Height: Five Feet, Nine Inches**

**Weight: 110 lbs.**

**Age: 17 Station Years**

**Birth Date: 3/3/3282**

Assignment: Research Old World Japan, find any traces remaining of Old World, dating to or before Ending War. If find anything of organic substance, report immediately to botanists in your area. You will be working on Area Five, with crew #9. Take Shuttle 27 to destination, Stop Four. Small Research Center set up off site, to reach take Shuttle 2 to the end of its line. There is a room waiting for you at the Research Center, Level 2, Room 13. Shuttles stop at Ten(Earth Hours) and start at Five. Breakfast is served at Four-Thirty, and dinner at Nine. Lunch is served in cafeteria on site, at Twelve-Thirty. For any questions, locate information desk on site or at Research Center.

**End Transmission'**

'Great.' Sky hated shuttles. No matter how fancy they might become, being in one was like being smushed under a full-grown Cleoton. There were always too many people on them. Well, this world is so sparsely populated, that maybe it was different here.

She pulled out an archaic pencil and a pad of paper from her pouch, and began to write down the instructions on the cranchite. She didn't trust it; no, she didn't trust herself not to get clumsy and delete all the data on there. With her sometimes scattered mind, the directions would probably be necessary until the fifth year, and she couldn't afford to lose them. How much help would an information desk be if she couldn't remember how to get there? She sighed. Facts and things of that nature she could remember, but when it came to her own life, she was lucky to remember to breathe. How many dates had she missed just this last year because of that? She didn't know. She couldn't remember.

Opening her pouch again, she put away the pad of paper and the pencil, then thought of a stick of mint candy. Reaching her whole arm into the tiny bag, Sky felt her finger tips brush the surface of it. The picture of the mint candy stick solidified in her mind (along with a vision of her eating it) and the sweet zoomed into her hand. Smiling, she pulled her arm out and walked over to a shuttle with a big 27 on it, happily munching on the minty goodness.

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'Help!' Sky thought but could not say, as even more people squeezed onto her shuttle, slowly suffocating her from the pressure and the smell. 'Why don't people on the planet's take a bath! At least once every month would help!' Of course, they did bathe more then that, but it sure doesn't seem like it when they're packed close all around you in a place with no windows, and the door far from sight. Her hopes that the shuttle wouldn't be packed were shattered the moment they slowed to a halt at Stop 2. Shoving the man next to her a little farther away, she tried to take an honest breath, but started choking as all the smells rushed into her lungs. The man she had just shoved away looked at her like she was carrying some deadly virus, and turned his head away to make sure he wouldn't catch it. For that, she coughed directly at him. He smelled bad, too.

Finally her Stop flashed on the screen that somehow shone through the crush of people, and she shoved her way to the exit, stepping on toes and elbowing stomachs. Stepping out of the shuttle, she took a deep breath of people-free air. She was not looking forward to getting back onto another shuttle to go to her new home, but it appeared that she had no time to linger. Shuttle 2 was leaving right now. Running, she reached it just before the doors closed, but she didn't get all the way in. The closing doors caught the back of her shirt, and still running, the shirt jerked her back into the door, knocking the wind out of her. 'Thank the stars that my shirt is made out of Orchilum!' (Orchilum: a fabric of my own invention, that will not rip or tear unless under extreme pressure.) But the shirt had been caught in the doors when she had been standing, so as she waited there, trying to get some air into her lungs, she had been swinging by her shirt. Scrambling, she got her feet underneath her, and had to stand right next to the door, where large amounts of dust came in through the cracks, until the next Stop. At the Stop, she was almost swept out of the shuttle by the masses of people getting out, and then pushed farther in by the people entering the shuttle. 'Well, at least I'm away from the door.'

It was starting to darken when she finally reached the end of the line, and there were many fewer people then there was in the beginning. As she stepped out, she looked at the people she would be working within some way or another for the next several years. They didn't look very friendly. 'But that could be because of the shuttles!' Sky thought optimistically. Turning from them, she walked into the big building.

The inside was brightly lit, and smelled nothing like the shuttles. The air was filled with the smell of sterilizing cleaners, which was only slightly better. Sky supposed that after a few days she wouldn't notice it, as she became used to it, but right now it was glaringly obvious. She made her way to the stairs, and went in search of her room. It was close to the entrance to the second Level, and Sky thankfully plopped down on the bed, throwing her bag over into the corner. Putting an arm over her eyes, she sighed.

This was going to be a long, shuttle-filled five years.

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_WritingWoman: So, how do you like it so far? I know it's going pretty slow, but you needed to hear about the end of the world first. I hope it gets better. This is only my second fan-fic by myself (besides the poem) and I'm really anxious to know what you think._


	2. Crazy Old Bat

_**Ch: 2**_

_**Crazy Old Bat**_

Sky woke to the sound of bells. Muttering several foul words, she stumbled out of bed and over to the rayer (shower, without water, cleans by rays). When that task was finished, she went over to her bag, and got out some clothes for the day, barely thinking at all, just moving out of habit. Once she was dressed, she headed downstairs, not knowing where the cafeteria was, but not wanting to eat anyway, because breakfast made her sick most times.

After nearly falling down the stairs three or four times, she safely (somewhat) reached the bottom, and went out to the shuttle. Grimacing, she stepped inside, and noticed how roomy it was in there with no people. 'No people?' Looking outside the open door, she found to her chagrin that the shuttle she had climbed into wasn't in working order. The men trying to fix it stared at her oddly as she stepped back out of it, red-faced. One started to laugh at her and she hissed at him, walking to where the working shuttle was supposed to be. Only, it wasn't there. Confused, she stood there, looking to where she was supposed to go, when one of the workers (one she hadn't hissed at. The one she had ran away.) came up and asked if she was all right.

"Where's the shuttle? It's supposed to be here to take me to Area Five."

"Lady, that shuttle left twenty minutes ago. It ain't comin' back until eight-thirty." Sky threw her head back and laughed hysterically. The worker stared at her as is she had just recently escaped from a House for the Insane, and started to back slowly away, not wanting to draw her attention.

'How perfect! My first day here, and I won't be on time for work. That's a way to get off on the right foot. Where did twenty minutes go?' She thought back and realized that it had been the time she spent wrestling with her clothes, to get them on the right way. 'Well, they really should put an indication of which side is the front on those things! The Earthers had the right idea: tags may have been itchy, but boy, were they useful. Not like these stupid Orchilum one-pieces. Can't tell which damn way is front . . . ' Sky moved her head back to its original position, to ask the worker if there was another way to the site; he was gone. Looking bewilderedly all around her, she couldn't find him, then just shrugged. Rude man.

Sighing, Sky resigned herself to walking all the way to the site. She turned and looked at where the tracks led to. Why the heck did this place have to be so big! In the Stations, it only took about an hour to reach the other side on foot. Sky sighed again. It was no use to think about it; she was stuck here until her contract ran out. LONG five years.

Two hours later, she arrived at the site, dusty and tired. 'WHY THE HELL IS THIS PLACE SO BIG!' She thought over and over again as she trudged along next to the tracks the shuttle traveled over, all the way to Area Five. As Sky walked over to where the rest were digging, a few looked up and gave her the dirtiest look, as if she had missed the shuttle on purpose. 'Like I wanted to walk all the way here!' She ignored them and went to the big tent near the center. As if she knew where she was supposed to go.

Walking inside the tent, a wave of coolness washed over her, and she closed her eyes in a moment of bliss. One moment. Then the guy in charge of the operation was in her face, asking A.) Who she was, B.) What she was doing here, and C.) How she got here, because the shuttle had already been there. Sky blinked a few times.

"Er . . . and you would be?" It was the man's turn to blink.

"I am Thompson West, leader of this excavation. I asked you a question. I expect an answer."

"Well, Mr. West, you did not ask me a question, you asked me three. And whether you expect an answer or not, it is still polite to ask it in a nice way. However, I will let your mother teach you this lesson, because I have no time. I am Anata Sky Pyre, Old Worlds Archeologist, and I need to know where I'm supposed to dig." She sighed as she remembered that she forgot a question. "And as if it isn't perfectly obvious from my state, I walked here. Stupid shuttle left before I did, and did you know that the scenery here isn't all that great? Just dust and craters as far as the eye can see." Tom's eye was twitching at her condescending tone. Not bothering to respond, he turned sharply on his heel toward the map on the back wall. Studying it for a moment, he pointed to a spot, and handed her the necessary materials for digging. Sky stared at the place she was supposed to dig on the map, hoping that he had pointed to the wrong spot.

"But that place is so far away! That's another twenty minutes of walking! Are you sure I have to work there!"

"Yes. And, because you arrived so late, I already assigned everyone else to different spots, so you will have to work that area all by yourself." Sky's jaw dropped all the way to the floor. Her site was at least a mile long! Her face screwed up into a pathetic pout, but she left the tent without complaint. This day was not shaping up well. And the stupid one-piece that had caused all this trouble was now giving her a wedgie. 'That's it!' Sky thought to herself. 'I am definitely never wearing these stupid one-pieces ever again!' She solemnly vowed to give away the rest of them tomorrow. She could send home for more clothes if it really became a problem.

It took more then twenty minutes to reach her site, but that was because she had stopped to watch a crazy lady. A woman who looked over a hundred years old was doing an odd dance, shuffling around in a circle, jumping up at odd times, and doing a weak copy of the disco. She was providing her own music, or what she thought was music, as she screamed,

"Follow old Ikifar, she knows the way! The way to the Bone Eater's Well!" Sky had watched this woman for five minutes, then shook her head and walked away. 'Crazy old bat. Heat's probably gone to her head.' When she finally reached her site, Sky groaned in an imagined pain. The place was _barren_. There was no indication that there might be anything underneath all the dirt, so she would have to dig everywhere. This was only a beginning operation, the government wouldn't fund them enough so that they could have all the nice equipment that senses all the objects under the dirt. This was going to suck big monkey feet.

The walk back to the big tent was so long that she decided to skip lunch that day, and took out the pencil and paper to write herself a note to grab something at the cafeteria tomorrow morning to bring to the site for lunch. Sky also made a note to wear anything not a one-piece, so she wouldn't have to walk to work tomorrow.

It turned out that the decision to skip lunch was a mistake. She felt like she was dying from hunger as she rode the shuttle back to the Research Center. Unfortunately, the smell of people after a hard day of work does not go away as you stand in a small place almost dead. If anything, it smelled even worse then usual.

The shuttle arrived on time at the Research Center, and Sky would have had to wait an extra half hour for food if she didn't happen to have food capsules up in her room, in her pouch. Shoving her way through the mass of people as they got off the shuttle, she ran up to her room as fast as she could, screaming at herself for forgetting her pouch. Slamming the door shut behind her, she dove at her bag, tearing it open and thinking very hard about the capsules. They came shooting out of the bag in a geyser, and she snatched a handful of them up, screaming at them, "FEED ME! I'M HUNGRY!" The capsules popped open into about five different meals, and Sky started to scarf them down, food bits flying all over.

There was a knock at her door. Mouth full of food, she looked up, and said, "Come in," her cheeks bulging. A woman on the other side of the door came in, saying,

"I heard screaming, are you alrig . . . " She stopped speaking when she caught sight of Sky's swollen face, the string of spaghetti hanging out of her mouth, turned, and walked away. Sky stared at the woman, bewildered, then shrugged and closed the door. 'Whatever.' She was still hungry. After her impromptu meal, she went to sleep, because she had suddenly become very tired. 'Stupid shuttle... had to leave so early... stupid one-pieces... can't tell difference... stupid brain... forget pouch...' She drifted off to sleep.

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The next morning, after the rayer, she thankfully remembered to not wear a one-piece. What she chose instead was a pair of loose pants, made of Orchilum as was most of her clothes, a deep blue in color, with little gold tear drops ringing the bottom. The shirt she chose was the same, except for a lighter blue, with the gold tear drops around the collar and shirt sleeves. The sleeves were three-quarter sleeves, and had a couple handy items sewn into the left arm, items such as a watch, a camera, and a thermometer. 'Yeah, so now I can tell at exactly what temperature I'm baking, how long it will take for me to be done, and how I look as I cook!' A couple seconds pass. 'Hey, that rhymed!'

This time Sky caught the shuttle, though she forgot to stop at the cafeteria. She had, however, remembered to grab her pouch, so she was in no danger of starving today.

At about noon, she stopped to eat, taking out a capsule, and settling down on a nice flat spot. Just as she was about to say "I'm hungry," (A/N: those are the words that make the capsule turn into food, because water is so cliche) that crazy old woman from yesterday popped out of nowhere, and jumped in front of Sky, screaming, "I KNOW THE WAY!" The ground beneath them collapsed under their combined weight, revealing that what Sky had been sitting on was, in fact, an ancient well.

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_WritingWoman: Hm, I bet you can't guess what well that was, can ya? Lol. And do you know that things are never what they seem? I have to have the Well this way, because otherwise my story wouldn't work. So, assume that the Well was REAL tired of sitting there, all alone, with no half-breeds and miko's jumping around and through it, so it decided to take just anyone for a spin through time. Unfortunately, it discovered that THAT much time travel is a lot of work, so... Sky might not be going back for a while. Hm. Touchy Well._


	3. Huh?

_**Ch: 3**_

_**Huh!**_

_WritingWoman: I'm writing this story by ear, because I have no definite plan for it, not even as vague a story line as I had for '**A Very Strange World, Indeed**'. So, if the story comes out choppy and not all that flow-ing, let me know. I also have a major writer's block, partly because I have finally convinced myself that I can live without sleep..._

_You know what? Just go away for a little while. I'm going to go take a nap._

_Hm. Touchy Author. All right, all right, you can stay. Just as long as you promise me one _

_thing._

_Don't wake me up._

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The crazy old woman cackled and ran off in one direction, leaving Sky unconscious at the foot of the Well, where it had coughed her up. As soon as she was out of sight of the young woman, the old lady shed her disguise, revealing that she was in fact quite young. Nineteen, perhaps. Her name was Rayanne Ikifar, with blonde hair and pale skin. Rayanne snorted in contempt. They were late, as usual. But what could you do? A couple minutes later, loud complaining voices signaled to her that they weren't that late, after all; had probably stopped for lunch somewhere. Wait; no. That's what the male voice was complaining about. That they hadn't had lunch yet. Smiling to herself, she shifted into yet another disguise, and ran out into the road, shrieking.

"Help! Help!" Mindful that Sky could wake at any time, she hurried her explanation to the confused group before her, mainly talking to the young females, both of whom she knew would be sympathetic. "A creature in the woods attacked me! It was headed toward the village! You must stop it!" Being a drama queen, she couldn't help but add a few tears into her explanation, pulling the 'remains' of her tattered clothing closer to her, shreds of a basket clutched tight in her hand. To the group, she looked like a frightened teenage girl. Rayanne started to wail. "My whole family is in the village! They'll be torn to shreds by the vicious creature! My poor little sister! And Bo-bo! You have to help them!"

Gently, one of the younger women grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to calm her. "Shh, shh, it'll be alright. Now, what does this creature look like?" Pulling her face to make it look anguished and terrified, Rayanne continued, her voice somewhat more stable.

"I don't know, miss. I was just out to gather some berries from the woods. I stopped a moment to eat a few – they're so good at this time of the year – and a creature that was almost all blue appeared, with eyes like silver flame!" She added a pathetic moan. Drama queen. "The eyes, the eyes! They looked like they wanted to tear me to bits! I only barely escaped by shoving my basket in those terrible eyes, blinding it long enough to get away." She became distressed again, crying out, "Please, let me pass! I must get to my village and warn them! We have not a fighter among us, we are but farmers! My poor little brother, Bo-bo! He'll be so frightened!" She tried feebly to break free from the other teen's grip, pretending to be as weak as she looked. A man in monk robes stepped up to where she could see him, though he wasn't quite aware yet of why they had stopped. Throwing herself at him, she pressed herself against him and cried out, "Oh, good monk, surely you can help me! My village is in terrible danger! My family! Please tell me that you will help them! I cannot save them alone!" The monk caught her out of reflex, and slowly realized what was going on. Rayanne pretended not to notice the hand sliding toward her butt, as she continued wailing in distress. "Bo-bo! Kita! Please, monk, save my family!" Turning big eyes up to look him in the face, she described once again the 'creature', tears running freely down her cheeks. Pretending to be wise and caring, he hugged her closer and promised to help. With a smile of thanks, she disentangled herself from his embrace and ran down the road, saying as she went, "Thank you ever so much! I will go warn my village, but tell them not to fear because we are to be rescued by a brave monk!" Rayanne hoped, as she ran out of sight, then looped around, that she hadn't laid it on _too_ thick, and they actually harmed Sky, thinking her to be a terrible monster. But then again, who would suspect innocent looking little Sky of anything? Rayanne chuckled, shifting out of the village girl form, and into her original one, the old woman. Her disguise wasn't so much magic as cleverly applied cosmetics, and the right mind frame. People saw what they wanted to see. Or, in this case, what she wanted them to see.

Sky slowly came to, back at the Well. Moaning, she sat up, rubbing the back of her neck in an attempt to get rid of the crick that had started there. A new smell reached her nose. 'What the hell?' It wasn't something she had smelled often, and most certainly not on dried up old Earth... the scent of growing things. Looking up, her hands fell limp, forgetting about the crick.

"TREES!" This place had honest trees! Not those little wimpy ones they grew in the labs, but a tree, several trees, huge ones! Scrambling to her feet, she went over as if in a dream, and touched one. It was much rougher then the little ones they so carefully cultivated in the Stations. Of course, the Stations had almost no real sunlight.

'But wait...' Where did all these trees come from? Last thing she knew, she had been in the middle of a barren steppe. How had she gotten here? 'Maybe this is the one of the places they're trying to regrow, with the old seeds salvaged before Leaving Earth.' Still, why would _she_ be there? Sky was an archeologist, and one with very little field practice. She had no place in a regrowth center. As she stood there, trying to puzzle it out in her head, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, a bunch of people burst through the thick growth of trees off to her left. They stared at her, and she stared back in equal measure. What on ... Earth!... were they wearing! Where had they found clothes of such antiquity?

Well, she wore a lot of blue, but... surely she wasn't the cause of that girl's distress! Inuyasha was the first to make a move, leaping up to attack. It wasn't so much that he thought that this girl had done it, but he had had a bad day, and felt the need to take it out on someone. First, Shippo had put spiders in his hair, then Kagome had refused to stop for lunch, and then that pretty teen had thought a mere monk could protect her better then he could! Hell, she hadn't even seen him! Growling, the hanyou dropped from the air, then screamed, "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" Then the person in blue did something that was... unexpected. She screamed right back into his face, put up her hands as if to stop him, and fell over. As his target disappeared, Inuyasha found he couldn't stop himself in mid-air, and crashed into the Well, stomach first. Then the woman in blue was on his back, pulling on his ears, screaming some more.

"What the hell do you think you were doing! Scaring a person like that! Who do you think you are, one of the Pirateas? Think you can get away with anything, just because you got ears!" She pulled on them harder, Inuyasha becoming very angry now. Before he could do anything, he felt the weight lifted from his back, though the screaming continued, it was just directed at another person. "Are you with him! You should teach him some manners, then!" The screaming stopped. Thank the gods. "Hey, where'd you get these? These clothes aren't deteriorated in any way! Who made these for you? You could get a lot of money for them up in the Academy! Why haven't you sold them to a museum yet?" Inuyasha turned to see he was talking to Kagome, as the woman in blue pulled away from Miroku, who had lifted her off his back. The strange woman was holding up Kagome's arm and studying it closely, Kagome with a bewildered expression on her face. She obviously had no idea what was going on. Inuyasha began to feel some worry grow in his stomach. If this blue wench had hurt the village teen for no reason, who was to say that she wouldn't do the same to Kagome!

"Kagome, back away!" Both Kagome and Miroku moved away from the woman, who stood there, not knowing what the heck was going on. Turning back to Inuyasha with an annoyed look on her face, Sky started talking again.

"Look, you, I don't know who you are, but you really should apologize for–" Inuyasha cut her off, by pulling out the Tetsusaiga, and saying, "Wind Scar!" The blast hit Sky right across the abdomen, and blew her into a tree.

"Inuyasha! Why'd you do that! Couldn't you tell she was human! She didn't do anything to that other girl!" Kagome yelled at him, rather irrationally. Inuyasha's ears drooped a little as he realized that she had been just a human. But he wouldn't admit it to Kagome, and he couldn't, because as he started to say something back, a moan came from where Sky had crashed.

"Ow, my poor stomach... ow, my poor back... OW! MY HEAD HURTS! DAMN! AHHH! IT HURTS!" She sat up from where she had come to rest at the base of the tree, tenderly cradling her head, while trying to still the screams coming from her mouth, because they only made the pain worse. "Ooowww... What the hell happened? Did I get struck by a giant Rrocke?" As she sat there clutching her head, she realized they were all staring. "What? Did my head explode? Am I dead? If I'm dead, why do I hurt so much?" ... "I could almost wish I were dead! It hhuurrttss...!" The woman who's clothes she had been inspecting earlier came over to her, knelt in front of her, and whispered into her ear,

"Um, you might want to know that your shirt is torn right open. I think you'd better fix it." Sky looked down and her face burned with embarrassment. "Oh my fucking God!" She wailed, clutching the torn remains of her shirt together with one hand, the other opening the bag on her hip. Pulling out a spare shirt, a glowing needle and some nearly invisible thread, she then ran behind the tree she had just crashed into to change. Then, sitting behind the tree, she proceeded to sew together her shirt, cussing the whole time at the 'man with the ears'.

When Kagome thought that the stranger might be dressed, she went around the tree and sat next to her. "How are you alive, if you're human? That should have killed you."

Sky snorted. "Well, that's nice to know. I'm sorry if me staying alive inconveniences you. I'll try to be more courteous next time, and just fall over and die, rather then bother to live and embarrass myself. Thousand pardons." The glowing needle moved swiftly through the tear in the shirt, sewing it up impeccably with the invisible thread. The only thing was, Sky wasn't moving the needle. It was sewing the shirt up all by itself. As Kagome watched this, Sky continued. "My brother always said I was too stubborn to die, anyway. 'Could be crushed by an Outcraft,' and live just to prove that I could. He can be a real pain sometimes. The guy with the ears your brother? He's annoying enough to be one."

"No, he's not my brother. How is the needle doing that?" Kagome pointed to the needle, still sewing away. (Little image of needle dancing around, singing)

"Huh? Oh, that thing. I don't know. I'm an archeologist, not a technician."

"So, how did you survive the Wind Scar? You are human, right?" Sky thought a moment, and worried Kagome a bit.

"Well, I think I am. My mother, who knows, I've always considered her more bot then human, but so far as I can tell, I'm human. A Mix, to be sure, but human. How did I survive? I'm guessing it was my shirt. That shirt is built to deflect a point-blank encounter with a meteor, and not only deflect, but protect the person inside. I'm more concerned with how he ripped it. That's Orchilum we're talking about, not the ancient's cloth." She gave a little half-laugh as she went over the needle's work. "We gave up wool and cotton when we moved to space." The girl looked at her like she was crazy. "What? It's true. I'm surprised you got enough together to make that outfit. You must be rich or something. We couldn't afford it, anyway, though my mother would never admit that we lacked for anything. Except manners. Always harping on the manners." Sky said, not realizing that in that way she was just like her mother. Abruptly, she turned to Kagome, and said, "All right, then, who are you? And, if you'd be so kind, why was I attacked?" Kagome looked up from the shirt. It had been sewn so well it looked as if it had never been torn.

"Uh, I'm Kagome. You were attacked because... you'll have to ask Inuyasha."

"From that, I guess it's safe to assume that Inuyasha is the man with the ears? Yes? Ok. I was getting really tired of having to say all that. I'm Sky by the way, and I do intend to ask that Inuyasha fella, then I intend to head back to the site. They may be mean there, but at least I wasn't being attacked by people strong enough to rip through Orchilum." Kagome noticed another odd thing about this woman–Sky. Her lips didn't form the same words that Kagome heard. Sky saw Kagome staring at her lips. "What? Do I have something stuck in my teeth?"

"No, it's not that. It's just, what you're saying, it doesn't match what I'm seeing."

"Huh? Oh! I understand. That's because you speak a different language then I do. My translator still works, I guess." Putting a hand behind her ear, she flipped the switch hidden there. "See? Now you don't know what I'm saying, do you?" Flipping the translator back on, she continued. "Wow. How could you not know about the translators? They've only been around, for like, ever. What language do you speak?"

"Japanese." Sky's eyes widened.

"Oh my God! You speak... that must mean you're an archeologist too! Are you one of the Dead Language people, here to decipher what we dig up!" Kagome shook her head, bewildered, but had no chance to answer as yet another woman came around the tree. Looking up thankfully at her friend, Kagome said,

"Please, Sango, you talk to her. My head hurts. I think she might be delusional." Kilala peeked over Sango's shoulder at the possibly crazy woman. Sky screamed in delight,

"She's so cute!" and picked up little Kilala, who was more then a bit startled. She calmed down, however, as Sky started to pet her and whisper to her, laughing under her breath when Kilala's tail tickled her nose. When the neko started to squirm, Sky let her go, and she went back over to Sango. Not really thinking, Sango put Kilala on her shoulder, and stared at the newcomer's hair.

"How do you get your hair to do that!" Looking sheepish, Sky answered her in a cross voice,

"Look, I know it's out of style right now, but it's not that far gone!" She patted the spirals, and sighed. "All right, I'm going now. See ya!" She got up, and walked around the tree, smack into Miroku, who was coming to see what was going on. Catching her before she fell down, he smiled into the young woman's face, and as she was about to thank him, she felt something creeping towards her rear. Yelling an odd cry, Sky snatched 'Whatever it was' and threw. Miroku went flying across the clearing, and Sky fell anyways. She got up, yelling,

"What the hell do you think you were doing! This ain't a bar, buddy, and I ain't no 'feel em up gal'!" She stormed away, then stopped. "Hey, uh – oh, crap, I forgot your name already – Kagome! That's it! Hey, Kagome, which way back to the Research Center? I really could use a Medicinal Hutch right now." (Medicinal Hutch: Another thing I invented, it heals you in the blink of an eye of all cuts and sicknesses. Rather nice, after you've just crashed into a tree) Turning to Kagome, there was just a blank stare on the Old Worldly dressed girl. "You know, a Med-i-cin-al Hut-ch?" She said it very slowly, fearing that the girl might be slow.

Kagome didn't think the stranger was slow, she thought she was insane. Then, the pieces started to come together in her head. The Well...

"You... what year do you think it is?" When she saw the bafflement on Sky's face, she hurriedly added, "Humor me. It's been a long time since I've had to think about it." A laughing expression replaced the confused one.

"I know what you mean. Sometimes, the time goes by so fast, I'll wake up one day, and find that a week has gone by! It's the year L.E. 3299, Station time. If we were talking about Earth, I'd think it would be..." She did quick math in her head. "...the year 5329, A.D." Kagome's jaw dropped. "What? Surely you aren't so far out of the loop that this comes as a surprise to you?" The others were staring at her as well.

"What the hell does L.E. mean?" Inuyasha asked irritably.

"What do you mean, 'What does it mean?' It means Left Earth, duh! Are you people insane?" A few seconds pass with no one saying anything. "Or, am I dreaming? That is quite possible. I've had weirder dreams then this... but dreams don't hurt! Unless, of course, you've been on that one pill they are advertising all over right now. 'Make all your dreams come to life!'" Sky said in one of those announcer voices. "But I haven't been taking those either... if I did, the world would have been taken over by evil brain eating monkeys, or the penguins that rode the kangaroos, though the kangaroos never wanted anything to do with taking over the world..." She was talking to herself. Kagome slowly approached.

"Sky, I think something has happened here. I want you to listen to me carefully, and answer me truthfully. Do you truly believe that this is the year 5329?" Sky sighed, annoyed at having her conversation interrupted.

"No, I don't." Kagome sighed in relief. Sky continued. "I believe that the year is L.E. 3299. I also believe that I said that already." Kagome shut her eyes in defeat.

"It's not." She opened her eyes, and cut Sky off when the woman would have said something. "This is the Feudal Era of Japan, and I myself am from the year 2005. How did you get here? I see no shard on you."

Sky had been listening to this without expression, then looked angry. "Oh, I get it, this is all a joke, ain't it? Take me here, leave me here, just because I'm the new guy. Well, listen up, it ain't gonna work. I'm not going to buy your bull. Just point out which way to the Research Center, and leave me alone. You can tell your buddies whatever you want about what happened here, I don't give a damn, but don't think that I'm not going to pay you back for this." Walking a few step closer to Kagome, Sky continued talking, in a low, dangerous voice. "And it will be when you expect it the least. Maybe it'll only be a broken shovel, that puts you behind in work for a day. Maybe it will be a collapse of your entire assortment of tools? Who knows? I will take the opportunity when I see it. Just know, I will not let this bull pass without retribution." She was about a foot away from Kagome when Sango butted in, cutting in between them.

"No, you won't. She's not lying. This is the feudal era, and for Kagome, it is the time 2005. You must be the one who is lying." Sky looked offended.

"Of course I'm not lying! This is all just more to get me to buy this, isn't it? I already told you, I'm not going to."

"Follow us, and let us prove it to you, then." Another voice cut in. Sky looked down.

"You... have a tail!" She was talking to Shippo.

"Well, of course I have a tail. I'm a fox demon. But come with us, and you'll see; Kagome is no liar."

"But I thought only the Brocentas from Galaxy 203 were the only ones with tails! And you're not green! Besides, no one but Earth descendants are allowed on Old World Earth!" Kagome looked up, startled.

"What do you mean, Old World Earth?" At the stubborn look on Sky's face, Kagome knew she wasn't going to find out until she proved that she was telling the truth. "Well, if you're coming with us to meet some people, you might want to change. That yellow shirt you're wearing really looks horrible with those pants." Sky tossed her blue shirt over her shoulder and marched back around the tree. Listening as she changed, she heard sounds of a muted scuffle.

"Ow, Sango, what did you hit me for!"

"Give her some privacy, you stupid monk! She's had a bad day!"

"I know! That's why I was going to see if she needed any help!" Slap. "Ow!" A slight smile was on Sky's face as she came out from behind the tree, dressed once more in the blue shirt that went with the pants. It disappeared soon, though, as she realized that they were going to play the roll to the hilt; they were going to walk to where ever it was that they were going.

As they walked along, a slight doubt started to form in Sky's mind, about whether this was all a game, or the honest truth. Further and further they walked, as she tried to reason with herself. Of course this was a lie. Even after all these years, time travel still escaped the scientists' grasp. So she couldn't be back in time. But what about that kid? There had been no kids at the Research Center, so where had he come from? 'Come on, there must be other places for them to stay!' Yeah, but her Research Center was the only one on the island, the only place livable. Everyone who was participating in this lived there, and they wouldn't bring in a kid from another place just to play a prank... and what about the cat? There were no pets allowed at the Center.

A flash of color crossed her vision. "Was that a... bird!" Sky exclaimed. The others turned to look at her, cutting off the conversation that they'd been having (one she hadn't even realized was taking place).

"Yes, that was a bird." Kagome answered. "What kind of time do you live in that it has no birds?"

"You know what time it is, you live there too. Do we really have to walk to wherever we're going? I may hate shuttles, but walking is worse."

"What's a shuttle?" Miroku asked. They ignored him, and Kagome replied,

"Yes, we have to walk. This time has no 'shuttles'. It's the Feudal Era. They don't even have indoor plumbing." Sky refused to say anything, and Kagome sighed, and turned to continue talking with Inuyasha. "After we prove this to her, I still need to go back to my time. There's several supplies we need from home, including ramen."

"She's holding us up from getting more ramen! Then why are we proving anything to her! Why don't we just ditch her!"

"Because, Inuyasha, I don't know if she'll be able to go back to her time. She lives so far in the future... what if she's stuck here for forever? She has to learn that this is real. Besides, I feel kind of bad because you attacked her."

"Why! She's fine! Nothing even happened to her! She hit a tree, so what! It happens all the time. Come on, let's just ditch her and get some ramen." Kagome was annoyed by Inuyasha's lack of sensitivity.

"Sit, Inuyasha!" He crashed into the ground noisily.

Sky had started ignoring them again, and had disappeared far into her own world while all this was going on. She didn't even hear the crash.

"HHEELLPP!" she screamed as she fell into the Inuyasha-shaped hole, landing right one top of the sitted dog-demon, squashing him a little further into the dirt. "What the hell!" she said, feeling something squirm underneath her as he tried to get up. Not knowing what was going on, she started to beat on him, kicking at his head, and punching his kidneys. With a growl, he leapt out from under her. They squared off right in the pit, biting, kicking and screaming. At first it seemed Inuyasha had the upper hand, (him being half-demon and all) but it was soon apparent that Sky was winning, because she had leapt on his back, where he couldn't reach, and was pulling on his ears, stretching them to where she could shout in them easily (or chew on them, which was what she was currently doing). Then, for the second time that day, someone broke up her fight, reaching in and pulling her off Inuyasha's back.

"Let me at him!" She yelled as she was pulled out of the hole gently by an enlarged Kilala (_A/N: Is she called Kirara in her larger form? I never could figure that out_). Kilala kept her hold on the scruff of Sky's shirt, not letting go for fear that the crazy human would go back into the crater to finish the battle. Inuyasha got out of the hole himself, looking slightly worse for the wear, his ears all rough looking.

"Aw, did poor icky Inuyasha get beat up by the big bad human?" Shippo taunted, then screamed and ran towards Kagome when Inuyasha started to chase after him, obviously not intending to give the kitsune a lollipop.


	4. Accepting The Truth Ain't Easy

_**Ch: 4**_

_**Accepting Truth Ain't Easy...**_

_WritingWoman: What? He could have wanted to give Shippo a lollipop._

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Anyways, despite a mishap or two, a couple chewed up ears, a few insults, and the many threats to kill each other, they all arrived at their destination.

"Are they... farming!" People. Lots of them. Working hard, farming, a thing Sky had never seen before.

"Yes. They don't even farm in your time?"

"Our time," Sky persisted, though without so much conviction as before. This was really starting to worry her. 'Maybe...' As they entered the village, Kagome risked making herself seem like a fool by asking every other person what year it was. Sky felt more and more depressed as the answers remained the same. It felt that every answer provided another brick, slowly trapping her in the truth, making her feel like she was going to have a mass case of claustrophobia. Breathing hard as they exited the market place, she sat heavily on a stump. Shippo came up to her.

"See? Kagome didn't lie." Sky sighed, not taking offense at his smug tone. 'Why should I? I was rude, when they were only telling the truth.' She sighed again. A weight settled on her shoulder, and something soft touched her cheek, as Kilala tried to comfort her. Absently, Sky petted her on the head, still thinking. A voice cut through.

"All right, she gets it. Can we go get some ramen now?"

"Sit!" He crashed through the dirt again, and Sky laughed weakly, then fell silent. Inuyasha got up again, and started arguing with Kagome. Sky heard her mention the Well. 'Wait, the place I had been sitting on to eat lunch before collapsed... and I woke up... next to a well!'

"Hey, Kagome, what does a well have anything to do with going home?" Kagome glanced at the girl, who seemed over her sudden depression.

"Er... the Bone Eater's Well is a portal between this time and my time. It's how I get home. And, home is where ramen is, so Inuyasha really wants me to go, but only if he can go with me."

"The Well! The old woman was talking about the Well!" She leapt to her feet, and took off, running along the straight path through the village, knocking people over.

"Hm. She's not one to be careful about other people, is she?" Sango mused. Kagome watched her go.

"Where do you think she's going?" It hit them.

"The Well!" They all ran after her, but Inuyasha kept pace with them, not running ahead. He was sore, and if that woman happened to hit her head on the bottom of the Well when she found out that you couldn't go through without a shard, then oh well.

Sky ran as fast as she could through the village, past the farms, and into the woods. As she reached the woods, she tripped over something, and fell heavily on her shoulder. Turns out, it wasn't a something, it was a someone. The same crazy old lady from before! Before Sky could get to her feet, the lady cackled from where she sat on a log, and grabbed the young woman's shirt, saying, "I know the way!" then running to get away from Sky. "Ookkaayy..." Sky muttered, then started running again, this time not stopping until she found the Well.

"Uh, does this thing have an instruction manual?" She walked around it, looking for some clue as to how to use it. Rayanne watched her from the trees, and heard the sound of the other's approaching. They were looking for Sky. 'Well, we can't have them find her yet! This will be too much fun for them to mess it up!' So she ran out into the clearing, and shoved Sky in the back, just as Sky was standing on the edge, looking down the Well, trying to see if there was a bottom or not. With a choked "What the hell!" (Ending in a scream) Sky fell down, and down ,and down. Rayanne disappeared before the others showed up.

"Where is she!" Kagome asked no one in particular. "Did she actually jump through the Well!"

"Kagome, talking to yourself makes you sound like that crazy human," Inuyasha muttered, not loud enough for her to hear. He was tired of getting sitted for the day. Looking down the Well, he said in a louder voice, "Well, I can't see her. Maybe she died." 'Hopefully.'

"If she died down in that Well, you wouldn't have to see her, you could smell her." Miroku stated. Everyone turned around and looked at him, startled. He hadn't been heard from in a couple of pages.

"Ookkaayy..." Kagome said, unknowingly copying Sky. "Someone should jump in, to see what happened to her. I mean, if we go through, and she is just sitting there at the bottom, she should also go through with us, right?" She went through without waiting to hear what they said. Reluctantly, Inuyasha jumped in too, dragging along Miroku, who in turn grabbed Sango, who grabbed Shippo, who grabbed Kilala by the tail, forming one long chain, as they passed through the Well, and into Kagome's time.

Sky sat up where the Well had coughed her up, but this time she was conscious.

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_WritingWoman: Sorry to interrupt, but, I changed my mind. Rayanne is going to be carrying around some spare shards in a pocket somewhere, and she slipped one onto Sky when she bumped into her the first time. All right? All right._

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Looking around, her eyes opened up wide. '_Cars_!' A voice squealed delightedly in her mind. She was in Kagome's time, before Leaving Earth! Sky got to her feet, and walked away from the Well, not paying attention to the people watching her from the doorway.

"Uh, that's not my granddaughter, is it?" Kagome's grandpa asked.

"Not that I know of." His grandson replied. "Where'd her hair go?"

In an ecstatic daze, Sky wandered around in the area for a while, then a big building caught her eye. 'A ... school? My god, is that really a school?' The schools in her time were little cranchites, with all this data really to be uploaded, and the information was zipped into your brain through a pair of headphones. Walking up to it, she entered, and wandered the halls. 'The outside says 'High School,' she noted mentally, forgetting it two seconds later. 'I should get a prize! First hand research on the time before Leaving Earth!' Striding through the empty halls of the building, she wondered where all the people were. There had been enough outside, and if this was a school, weren't all the young people supposed to be here? A bell rang over her head, and she looked up, startled. Then the doors all around her burst open, and students flooded the formerly empty halls. Watching them pass, she saw that several were around her own age. 'What the hell?' Sky thought. 'Shouldn't they be in jobs by now?' With the invention of teaching cranchites, long days of school had become unnecessary, and people often had a collage degree at thirteen or fourteen, and were working by sixteen. As she began pushing her way through them, another bell rang, and suddenly the halls were empty again.

"Er..." For a moment, Sky just stood there, then shrugged, and continued walking. Every time she passed something she didn't know about, she tried to describe it, but often failed to find the right words. Finally she gave up, and just snatched whatever it was, and stuffed it into her pouch.

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_WritingWoman: Ok, I'm going to explain a little bit about the pouch. The pouch works like this: it is a tiny void kept inside the fabric, (the mouth of the pouch opens up to any size) and to bring something out of the pouch, all you have to do is think hard about it, and it will come to the surface, where you can reach it. But, basically, right now, Sky is stealing everything._

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A whistle came from inside a half open door, catching her curiosity, so she opened it up a bit further, and looked inside. Her eyes opened wide, then half-shut in silent laughter. The people inside were running in circles, a completely pointless activity. Sky's gaze wandered a bit from the silly people, and came to rest on a young man, older then the rest, barely, but obviously in charge, as he encouraged them to keep going, just three more laps. Sky inhaled sharply. The man was _fine_, and built like a god. Her eye-smile spread to her face, as she grinned in pure delight of seeing him. But his clothes were... odd. 'So,' her brain told her mischievously. 'Take some with you for closer analysis.' The little devil on her shoulder agreed wholeheartedly, and the angel didn't object, though she didn't approve either.

Sky walked right into the class, and up to the young - teacher. 'That's right.' Going up to him, he must of thought she had a question or something, because he smiled – an amazing smile, by the way – and asked her what she needed. Without responding, she whipped his shirt off, and walked out the door, leaving him to stare after her. She didn't look back. Ok, she did, but only twenty million or so times. As she exited the gym, (to the cheers of the female half of the students) she smiled some more, and wrapped the shirt around her head like a turban, hiding her hair. She continued on her way through the school, stopping every now and then to add something to her collection.

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"Kagome! Nice to see you! Something strange happened earlier..."

"Not now, Sota! I have to go! Inuyasha, which way did she go?"

"How do you expect me to know?"

"Look, you can either volunteer to find her scent, or I can smush your head into the dirt until you find it. Who knows what she could do to my time!"

"But Kagome, I–"

"Sota! I told you, not now!" Kagome started to walk away, with a reluctant Inuyasha in the lead. But before she could go very far, her little brother wrapped himself around her leg, clinging to it like a limpet. No matter how hard she tried to shake him off, he stubbornly kept his hold. "Fine, Sota! Tell me, what is it?"

"A strange woman came through the Well. Grandpa thought it might be you for a minute, but I knew better. Who was it, Kagome?"

"A friend of ours." Inuyasha snorted. "Sota? Which way did she go?"

"Well, I followed her a ways, until she went into the High School. Then I came back here. I didn't know who she was, so I decided to wait for you." Abruptly, Kagome hugged her little brother, effectively pulling him off her leg. Putting him back down, she ran off to the school, the rest of them in tow. "Thanks, Sota! Tell mom that I'll be home for dinner!"

"All right, I will!"

Sprinting, Kagome entered the school in front of them all. Unfortunately, the principal was just exiting his office, and she ran right into him. He had been leaving because there were reports of missing items, and one of the newer teachers reported that his shirt had been stolen right off his back. The principal promised to look into it, but as Kagome ran into him, he must have felt that he had to sympathize with her over her latest 'illness', which took about ten minutes, and then he had to tell her how glad she was that she was recovered now, and back in school, taking another five minutes of her life away. Nodding, impatient, but trying not to let it show, she listened, with her friends waiting outside the door. When he finally went away, she motioned Inuyasha in, startled when Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kilala also appeared through the door.

"How did you guys get here?"

"Through the Well, of course. Inuyasha dragged me along, and I dragged the rest." Miroku answered. Kagome sighed, and said,

"Well, you'll all have to come along then. We got to find her before you can go back."

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While the principal had been talking to Kagome, Sky had finished her first walk through the school, and was doubling back for the second time, to see if she missed anything. Passing a familiar door, she couldn't resist looking in, to see if he still had no shirt. Unfortunately, he did, and that made Sky angry. Marching up to him, his back to her, she turned him sharply around, and pulled this shirt off as well, saying,

"Didn't you learn anything the first time? This sort of stuff is bad for your health. Never do it again. And, just so you don't feel tempted, I'll be taking this one as well." She started to walk away, stuffing the shirt into her pouch this time, when a loud thundering noise caused her to automatically dive off to the side. From her position on the floor, she watched as the shirtless male gym teacher ran for his life from the mass of girls chasing him. She wanted to join in the chase, but remembering her profession quelled the urge. She had a lot more to see before she could go off to chase half-naked hotties. Sighing, she got to her feet, and walked out the door.

Kagome also saw the crush of people coming, but not in time. Thankfully, Inuyasha had, and pulled her out of harms way, as the man and the crowd ran by. Kilala saved the others.

Quirking an eyebrow, Inuyasha said, "Somehow, I think your 'friend' had something to do with that, Kagome. Call it a hunch." The principal ran by, huffing and puffing. Bending over, he tried to catch his breath, but it ran faster then he did.

"Do... you... know... who... started... all... this?" Gasp. "Most... all... the... posters... and... projects... on... the... walls... are... gone... and... there... is... no... trash... in... the... hall... way." Cough, hack, cough, wheeze, gasp. "Do... you... think... who... ever... it... was... would... be... the... janitor?" They ignored him, and backtracked the mobs path.

Sky saw them coming before they saw the mob. 'Oh no!' She thought. 'They're coming to take me away! But I'm not done here!' Looking both ways, she slipped into a door to her right. Not paying any attention to the stunned class inside (except to steal a pencil or two, because hers was getting short), she looked for an exit. 'A window!' Though a life-time of training told her to never open a window (there's no light breeze outside a space station), she opened one up and looked down. A two floor drop to the ground. 'Um.' Studying the place in front of her, she saw the tree almost reaching to the window. 'If I jump...' She went back into the room a little ways, the people inside just watching her, not saying anything. A flutter caught her eye, and she snatched one of the many flags hanging from the ceiling off, muttering, "And if I fold it just like this, it should..." Hearing footsteps just outside the door, she knew she didn't have long. Taking a running leap, she launched herself out the window, swinging the flag over the branch just as she came near, catching herself from falling, sliding down the branch. She smacked into the trunk, just as Inuyasha and the rest burst in through the same door. The class was still silent.

"There she goes!" Kagome said, trying to follow her. Inuyasha caught her around the waist before she could launch herself out the window.

"Stupid wench! There is a door! What the hell is wrong with you today, Kagome!" She stopped struggling. There was a door. Sheepishly, she went out it, the rest still following. As the door closed, the teacher in the room turned to the class and asked,

"Ok, so, what did you learn from that? Yes, Shashayla?"

"Always lock the classroom door so that psychos stay out in the hall."

"Good! Now, back to what we were talking about..."

Sky stood outside the classroom, and shook her fist at it. "You'll never catch me! I have too much to study!" Kagome rounded the corner, and Sky took off toward the very heart of the city. "You'll never catch the Dread Pirate Roberts!" ... "Whoever he happens to be!"

As she ran to catch up with Kagome, Sango said, "This is stupid, all this running. Why don't we just ride Kilala?" Not pausing, Kagome answered,

"Can you imagine what it would be to these people, to see a giant neko tearing around the city, with people on it's back?" Sango thought a moment, then nodded.

"It might seem a bit strange. I guess it's not such a good idea."

Sky stopped for a moment, and merely studied the people and places as they swarmed around her. One certain building caught her attention.

It was a mall. And it was _huge_. Stepping towards it as if in a dream, slowly she entered the brightly lit place. Sounds assaulted her, and smells of fried foods filled her nose. Still moving slowly, she walked into the first store she saw, and was enveloped with a strong perfumed scent. Picking a small bottle up, she uncorked it, and brought it to her nose, then nearly choked with the power of the smell. Still, she dropped it in her pouch. Walking through the store, she dropped one after another into the void, and when she walked out, no alarms went off.

So she went through the mall, entering every store, and taking something from each one. When the rest finally caught up with her (they were behind because they had had to play dodge ball with traffic; rush hour had started after Sky had gone across. Thankfully. If it had been occurring while she was out there, she would probably have stood right in the middle of the street and tried to suck one or two up into the pouch) she was in the grocery part of the mall, taking her time going up and down the aisles, putting food into the pouch. For a moment they just watched her, emptying all the shelves into the pouch.

"Grab her! She's going to steal the whole mall!" This time it was Shippo. But the others were too busy laughing to do anything. While they were laughing, Sky turned around the end of the aisle, and disappeared from sight. "She's gone, funny people!"

They stopped their laughing (a little) and walked around the corner on their side of the aisle. This aisle held all the ramen.

"She's going to steal the ramen! If she does that, how am I going to buy any!" Kagome half wailed, accompanied by a choked laugh. Inuyasha, instead of flying off the handle to save his precious ramen, had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Kagome, instead of stopping her, how about we let her steal it all, then steal it from her later?"

"But Inuyasha, we can't let her steal all this stuff. Stealing is wrong."

"Yeah, but think of how much you'll save, without even having to buy car insurance." Kagome considered this. Well, this was better then having to pay all that money... and apparently her pouch had some anti-thief-catch on it, so...

"All right, Inuyasha, let's wait."


	5. Thievery Isn't Good For Your Health or

_**Ch: 5**_

_**Thievery Isn't Good For Your Health**_

_**or,**_

_**That Creepy Burger King Guy Scares The Crap Out Of People**_

Soon the stored were all empty, with the people managing them none the wiser. How could you find and arrest someone who doesn't exist? Anyway, Sky was still just wandering through the city, taking whatever caught her eye, and asking odd questions. Well, odd to the people she asked. Why would anyone not know that cars ran on gas?

All the things that she knew she shouldn't stuff into her bag (a building, for example. Not that it wouldn't fit, but because there were people in there, and she was sure that they wouldn't like to be stuck in a never ending void) she took pictures of, once she remembered that she had a camera in her sleeve. Eventually, though, she got bored, and started to look around for the house and the Well. Kagome was suddenly at her elbow, making her leap in surprise, causing her to hit some poor person, setting off a chain reaction much like the domino effect. Sky watched them fall, half laughing, half worried that she should run away before they got up and started chasing after her.

Kagome tugged on her arm. "Come on, you've caused enough trouble for today. Let's go to my house, and eat something." Sky followed happily. She would never have remembered which way was the Well on her own. When they reached Kagome's house, Sky started to unload all the smaller things she had collected, asking what each one was, and what they did. She was half way in her bag when Inuyasha came up behind her, saying,

"Give me all your ramen, or I'll cut you open with my sword." She came out, holding all the ramen, trembling. With anger.

"I will not give you this stuff! I have plans for it! This ramen belongs to me! Is it really called ramen? Why? ANYWAYS, you can't have it!" For the third time that day, they began to fight. Inuyasha tackled her from behind, causing the ramen to fly up into the air, and fall far away. He started to go after it, but she jumped on him, yelling,

"Oh, no, you've got to finish what you've started!" She missed the ears, instead grabbing huge handfuls of his long hair, and yanking hard. Her feet scrambled to find a purchase on his back, repeatedly kicking him in their search. The hanyou was forced to turn around and try to stop her. They began to wrestle right there in the middle of the house, filling the air with growls, yelps, and screams of rage. Most of the screaming was done by Sky, because, I guess, she likes to scream. Anyways, he threw her away from him, but stupidly, because she landed right next to the ramen. Snatching it back up, she covered it in a weird substance, and immediately all the bunches of ramen turned into food capsules.

"NNNOOO!" Inuyasha yelled, diving at her, grabbing as many of the capsules as he could. "What have you done to my ramen!" He tried to bite down on them, but only succeeded in hurting his teeth.

"It was – is – _my_ ramen. And, I've turned them into capsules. There's no way you can eat them as they are."

"TURN THEM BACK!"

"NO!" Scooping as many as she could reach into her pouch, Sky was unprepared for Inuyasha's attack. This time he jumped on her, trying to yank on her hair. In his grief over the ramen, he wasn't thinking clearly. He only grabbed turban. His surprise was enough time for Sky to launch her own attack.

Kagome sighed. This wasn't a good thing. She couldn't get answers from Sky if she was dead. Miroku walked in then.

"Is it just me, or so they fight a lot?" Sango was right behind him.

"Wow. Deja vu." Miroku smiled brightly, slyly moving his hand behind her.

"So it's not just me!"

"You letch!" Slap. Sky looked up from where she had Inuyasha pinned on the ground, trying to force him to eat... carpet, since there was no dirt.

"Hey, when did you guys get here?"

"About five minutes after you did. While Kagome was trying to track you down, I was left the job of making sure the 'monk' here didn't terrorize any of the poor females in the area. Did you steal the whole mall, or only most of it?"

"Only most of it." Sky sighed, and let Inuyasha up. "I need food." She said. Walking to where she had thrown her pouch to keep it out of the scuffle, she picked it up, and walked into the back yard, muttering, and searching it's contents. They ignored her after it appeared that she wasn't going to do anything more interesting then that. Except for Inuyasha, who was planning his revenge.

"So, why are we here still? Why aren't we going home?"

"Because I promised mom that I'd stay for dinner, and–"

"Look at what that crazy wench just did!" They turned and looked at Sky when they heard Inuyasha yell. There was a three course meal directly in front of her. Inuyasha was telling them what had happened. "She was just muttering to herself, looking through the bag. Then she smiled, pulled out her hand, and spoke into it, saying, 'I'm hungry'. And then all that food was there!" He started to run over there, probably going to try to steal the food from her, (all that fighting was making him hungry) when Kagome yelled, "SIT!" effectively stopping him. At all the noise, Sky looked up at them, saying,

"Hey, what's up? What's with all the yelling? Did someone get hurt?"

"Where did all that food come from? Shippo asked bluntly. Sky started; she had forgot he was there.

"Er... my pouch?" She saw Inuyasha sitting where he had crashed, saying into his hand, "I'm hungry." Nothing happened. "I said, I'm HUNGRY." Still nothing, and he started chewing on his hand. When nothing else happened, he tried the other way. "FEED ME! GIVE ME RAMEN! I'M HUNGRY! FEED ME NOW!" Hey, guess what? Lots of nothing happened. For the first time since meeting this strange group, Sky felt sorry for the man with the cool ears. Walking over to him, she picked up one of the discarded ramen capsules, and put it in his hand, saying,

"Try it now." He looked at her, suspicious, but tried it anyway.

"I'm hungry." Poof! A small table with three bowls of ramen on it appeared. "Yay! Ramen!" He started eating with vigor.

"Hm. Now I know why it's so easy to get mad at him. He reminds me of my brother." She smiled at Kagome. "Now, what were you saying about dinner?"

"But you've already eaten..." Sky was still smiling.

"Yeah, but it would be terribly rude to not eat here after you've promised your mother that you would. Besides, I would love to meet some people who live here full time. They must be fascinating."

"My family aren't test subjects!"

"I know, I know," Sky soothed. "I just want to meet them. I won't tell them about the future if it makes you uncomfortable, though it would probably help them in the long run." Kagome though a moment, and grudgingly nodded. She really shouldn't skip out on her mom. Inuyasha finished eating, and they had about two hours until dinner would be done.

Now what?

About five minutes of silence passed between the group, as the writer sat at the keyboard, staring lifelessly ahead, full of writers block.

Kagome walked over to the writer in the corner, and hit her on the head, breaking the author's trance.

"Hello! What do we do next?"

"How am I supposed to know! Didn't you read the last couple of sentences?" WritingWoman pointed to what she had just written. "See? '_Writers block_.' That means, I don't know what to write. Why don't you all go off and entertain yourselves, and give me a break?" Sango came over now.

"Well, what do you expect us to do?" Miroku snuck up behind her, and grabbed her ass.

"I can think of something," He managed to get out before she hit him over the head with her Hiraikotsu. Sango turned angrily to the author.

"I know you made him do that!" WritingWoman shrugged blandly, spreading her hands before her.

"Well, it got you off my case, and he was more then willing to do his part, so..." I smiled blandly.

"Hey, you changed your POV!" Sky shouted, coming over as well.

"What?"

"You were writing in third person, now you're writing in first!"

"It got too long to write my pen name over and over again, so I changed my point of view." (Shrug) "It's not that big of a deal, you didn't have to shout about it." Looks at keyboard. "Stop acting up, will you?"

Keyboard: 'Hey, it's not my fault your fingers are clumsy.'

Me: "Shut up! They are not, you just won't work right!" The other people in the room stared at WritingWoman and the keyboard, as they argued for the next two hours about who was right and who was wrong. Then Kagome's mom popped inside the door, saying,

"Dinner's ready!" The people inside scrambled out, away from the lady and the talking

keyboard. WritingWoman looked up, and said,

"Ok, writer's block over!" And followed them out to the dining room.

Er...

Oh yeah!

Sky sat at the table, politely answering all their questions, except for where she came from. Kagome made an alarmed gesture that Sky took to mean that she didn't want her parents to learn about the future, so instead Sky made up an elaborate lie about being from the feudal era as well, and how she met the group. A T.V. was on in the other room, and from where Sky sat she could see it, but thankfully she had already seen one, so she didn't get up and try to steal it. She already had three or four sets in her pouch. Anyway, leaning away from the low table, she caught a commercial.

T.V.: 'Vroom, vroom, beep beep, quack!' (A shadow appears on the horizon, far down the road. Slowly, it comes closer, and closer, and closer, until finally you can see what it was. Satan, in a tutu, tearing down the road on a mini-chopper, with a rubber duckie on his shoulder, as he sang in a heavy rock tone,) "Twinkle, twinkle, little star! How I... something something something... Twinkle, twinkle, little star! How I ... wonder what you are!" (Satan pulls up to a stop, and talks to the camera) "Are you like me? Did you used to pay a sinfully large amount of money on car insurance? Switch to a bike to get away from the gas prices, yet the insurance prices still follow you, like demons dragging you down? Well, if so, do what I did: switch to Geico, and save up to two hundred dollars in motorcycle insurance." (Satan roars away, and you can see heads tied to the back tire cover, screaming,) "Beep Beep!"

Sky watched Satan fly down the road, then slowly looked away. This place was strange. But the food was good, and they also decided to stay the night, after it was discovered that Inuyasha couldn't move because of the large amount food he had eaten. Sango and Kagome kicked Sky out of their room when she wouldn't shut up, constantly asked questions about random things. Because she couldn't sleep, Sky went out into the living room, and watched the T.V.

The household was rudely awoken by her piercing scream, as she scrambled to her feet and ran from the t.v., shrieking, into Kagome's room, where they had to pry her out of the closet.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Kagome asked furiously, mindful of her mother's presence. Sky stammered out an answer.

"Th-the m-m-man! H-h-he w-w-was watching m-m-me!" She ended on a wail. Kagome shook her.

"What are you talking about! There is no man out there! Inuyasha would have seen him if there was! And you didn't see anything, did you, Inuyasha?" He shook his head. "See? Nothing is wrong." Sky started to wail again, as she saw Sango was about to open the window to look outside.

"NO! DON'T DO IT! THE CREEPY MAN WITH THE SANDWICH IS OUT THERE! HE'S AFTER ME! HE'LL JUST BE STANDING OUT THERE, SMILING! HE WANTS TO POISON ME WITH HIS KILLER SANDWICH SO THAT HE CAN EAT MY FLESH!" She lurched from where she had been sitting on the bed, and tried to tackle Sango. Inuyasha and Miroku caught her before she could reach the demon slayer. "DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW!" She screamed some more.

There was a knock on the door. "DON'T OPEN IT! HE'LL TRY TO COME IN THROUGH THE DOOR, SINCE HE CAN'T REACH ME THROUGH THE WINDOW!" They ignored her. Police were at the door, called by a concerned neighbor over the screaming. It took a while, but eventually they were convinced that it was just a misunderstanding, one of their daughter's friends had been badly scared by a horror movie, nothing to worry about. And after a lecture over the responsibilities a parent has when dealing with this sort of stuff, they left. Heaving a sigh, they moved back upstairs, where Inuyasha and Miroku had given up trying to dig Sky out of the closet. Finally getting the whole story from her, they learned that what she was so afraid of was in fact the Burger King Man, who, in those commercials, just stood outside your window like some creepy smiling hungry stalker. They all agreed with her, that he was creepy, and that he was pretty scary, but said that she was very stupid for thinking he was real.

Soon, they went to sleep.

Except the author, who went over to a friend's house, because her best friend is moving away, and this was a goodbye thing. It was a lot of fun. Except for that we all knew she was going to be leaving soon. The commercial was dedicated to her, though she don't read my stories, because she's not into fanfiction and the like.


	6. More Writer's Block

_**Ch: 6**_

_**More Writer's Block**_

_WritingWoman: Is it just me, or is this week just full of no ideas?_

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Though the night had had it's bad points, Sky and Kagome's parents parted on good enough terms. They didn't chase her out, anyway. Soon they were back in the Feudal Era.

Well. What to do now?

Kagome: "Why don't you introduce a new character?"

Author: "Hm... maybe... but who?" They all think a little bit.

Sky: "Someone nice. There are too many mean people."

Author: "What? Like who?"

Sky: "Well... Rayanne, me, and... Do we count Inuyasha as one? He isn't a person you invented... so... he's kinda mean, anyway..."

Author: "He's mean because you're mean, and he's also mean because he's just mean, like

you're mean because you're mean."

Inuyasha: "You just said one of the most useless things I've ever heard."

Author: ":SVKBSRKJG I BTEWUHGTEWJN KJ!"

Inuyasha: "That too." Silence.

Author: "And how do you know that Rayanne is mean? You don't even know of her existence. She might turn out to be nice. What has she done that was mean, anyway?"

Sky: "She got me stuck in the past!"

Author: "..."

Sky: "What was that?"

Author: "You didn't have much of a problem with that, as far as I could see. Heck, you were happy. But, back to the subject. Maybe Rayanne will turn out to be a good guy. Who knows?"

Kagome: "Why don't you know? You are the author."

Author: "I already said I was writing this story by ear. I have no clue about what is going to happen, so don't ask me." They all stare at her. "What?" They just keep staring. WritingWoman becomes unnerved, and hides in closet, pulling doors shut to keep them from seeing her. "Stop staring at me! Why does everyone always stare at me!"

Sky: "Maybe that's because you have bright blue hair."

Talking Closet: "No I don't!"

Sky: "Well, then, maybe you should."

T.C.: "How would that help!"

Sky: "I don't know, but blue hair is cool." Silence. "What?" Another closet appears. "Yay!" Hides in closet. Lots of closets appear, and they all hide.

Author: "Hello? I'm stuck."

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_WritingWoman: This was not intended to have a double meaning. There is no hidden message. It was just me, asking myself what should happen next, and you got to read it. I repeat, THERE IS NO HIDDEN MESSAGE. There's nothing wrong with being gay, but I just didn't want my words misinterpreted. _I do not own Inuyasha.


	7. Mara Rose

_**Ch: 7**_

_**Mara Rose**_

Things had appeared to be going quite smoothly until noon, as they stopped from lunch on one of the obscure roads crisscrossing the Japanese Empire. Inuyasha was being stubborn, and continuously demanded ramen, refusing the leftovers that Kagome's mom had so kindly packed. Kagome had to keep telling him that because of his plan, they had no ramen. Sky had refused to give up hers, because she would need it for research when she got back to her own time. Until lunch, they had all been just moseying along, as Sky carefully explained the intricacies of the future, how it had been the first female president that had ended up saving their ass's and bringing them into space, where they had eventually mingled with several other peoples – human-ish or not. Sky herself was a direct result of that mixing, being both 'Classic' human (humans descended from Earth) and 'New Age' human (humans that had originated on other planets). However, back to the ramen.

The argument had become so bad that Sky and Inuyasha were yet again fighting, tearing up the road and the occasional tree in their quest to win. Sky was a lot stronger then she looked, and Kagome supposed that it came from her 'New Age' blood. Miroku didn't suppose anything; he was too busy laughing at the pair, then running for his life as the fight started to move towards him. Sango thought this was the funniest thing she had ever seen, but Shippo and Kilala were nowhere to be seen. They were farther out in the woods, playing hide and seek. Or, more accurately, tag, since you can't hide very well from someone who can track your scent.

Because of their distraction, few noticed the arrival of a new face. 'Few' meaning Sky. Her movements stopped abruptly, and Inuyasha was only aware of the fact that he was going to win. Finally. Tying her hands and feet together with a piece of string that just happened to be laying nearby (_A/N: Cough, cough_), he sat on her back, feeling triumphant. Until this was completed, he didn't notice that she had stopped struggling. Looking up, he found out why.

Sesshomaru stood near the road, watching with that cold expression, Rin and Jaken at his side. The dragon-thing was out of sight.

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_WritingWoman: Hello, all! I had writers block for the longest time, but I finally got a little more of an idea! Still no clue about where it is going... And I'm always open to ideas! I have no idea what the dragon-thing is called, but I'm trying to find out... Read and Review!_

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Nothing happened for a moment, as Sesshomaru stared at the formerly fighting pair, and everyone stared at him. Then, he sniffed in disgust and turned his head away. The youkai whipped his head back around as he heard a scream.

"It's so cute!" Sky broke her bonds without warning, and lurched up, knocking off Inuyasha. She rushed at the dog demon, who put out a hand to grab her. She merely dodged it, and latched onto his tail, cooing and petting it. Then Sky tried to pull it into her pouch. Sesshomaru grabbed part of it, and tried to yank it away from her, toward himself. What ended up happening is not her relinquishing the tail, but instead being swung by it, coming to rest eye level with Sesshomaru.

"Hi! Would you please let go of my tail?" She said brightly. The demon's eye twitched.

"Let go of my tail now, you stupid human." He shook the giant white piece of fluff, trying to dislodge the human. She swung around wildly, but still did not let go. When she finally stopped moving, she was smiling in his face again.

"But, you see, you haven't been using it, therefore it is not vital, and it follows that it is up for grabs. Now, if it was braided, or something..." She stopped talking, and studied the face so close to hers. "Hey, you know what? You're pretty cute." The twitching eye stopped, and Sesshomaru turned abruptly, walking into the woods, dragging Sky with him, because she was still just hanging onto his tail.

"Bye!" Sky called. "Talk to you later!" Their last vision of her was her swinging by the tail behind the assassin Sesshomaru.

"For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this." Miroku said, rubbing his chin lightly. He looked over at Kagome. "Do we go after her?"

"Yeah!" Inuyasha interrupted. "I want to kill them both!"

"Sit!" Crash. "Why would you want to do that?" The hanyou's voice rose in answer from the hole.

"She has all the ramen!" He scrambled out of the hole.

"I say we wait to see her again, rather then going after them. We can just wait here." A groan reached their ears, coming from a certain half breed dog demon.

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"Lord Sesshomaru, what is wrong?" Jaken asked, hurrying to keep up with his master's long strides. He caught another glimpse of his masters face, confirming that something was wrong. There was a rosy color on his usually pale cheeks. "Are you ill, my lord?"

Sesshomaru was blushing. Rin and the human woman were having a lively conversation behind him, the woman still hanging from his tail. He tried to hold it away from himself, but every now and again she bumped against it, and he blushed a little more, the usual ice pale of his face warming slightly.

"So, where are we going?" Sky asked. She had been speaking to the cute guy with the tail, but the sweet faced girl answered instead.

"We're going to see Mara Rose!"

"All right... who is Mara Rose!" The girl (who's name was Rin, she would discover later) launched into her story.

"Well, I was playing by the stream when a huge group of people came up and grabbed me. Ok, maybe not a huge group, but more then one or two. They had seen me playing alone, and had captured me to sell to far away lands. Mara Rose told me that. She protected me the whole time I was captured, because at first I had been given to her to train me to be a good slave. But she couldn't do it, because I reminded her so much of her own little sister, who was killed by the slavers. Mara Rose called me her second chance, and swore to help me escape. I wasn't worried, though, because I knew that my lord Sesshomaru would rescue me. And he did, by killing the bad men. Mara Rose thought he was trying to hurt me, though, so she dived at me, and my lord attacked her by mistake. Before he could kill her though, I told him how much she had helped me." Rin sighed sadly. "But she won't allow my lord near her to heal her with the Tenseiga, so he looks for a human to heal her." Now she smiled. "I guess you're going to heal her!"

Sky was baffled. "Er..." She was going to say that she knew almost nothing of medicine, but the girl's hopeful expression killed her words. So she said something else. "Why wasn't cutie here there to protect you in the first place?" Rin shrugged. Her lord had told her to stay by the stream until he came back to get her, and that had been enough. As she was explaining this, they reached their destination.

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The dragon-thing was curled up around a huddled lump on the ground. At a word from Sesshomaru, it uncoiled, and went off into the woods. Pulling his tail around so that the woman was in front of him, he pointed at the huddled figure. Rin was already over there, talking quietly to it. It said something back, and Rin ran over. "She's says she's ready, my lord."

"Let go of my tail, and see what you can do for the human." Sesshomaru commanded in an imperious voice. Sky cast an annoyed glance at him, but let go of the tail, knowing it would still be around for her to steal later. Going over to the woman, she assumed that this must be Mara Rose. Slowly, not quite knowing what she was doing, Sky gently turned the woman over, laying her on her back. She gasped in surprise and sympathy pain. "Damn. Girl, what happened to you? Never mind, I know. Did you want his tail too?" The face stared back at her, shocked. Sky cursed under her breath. She had been trying to put the woman at ease. "Lady, I'll tell you it straight. I know next to nothing about healing. I might mess up, and do something worse to you then this. You might die. Why don't you just let the guy with the tail heal you?" Mara Rose shook her head furiously, then gasped in pain as a wound opened up a bit more. "Holy shit. You're losing a lot of blood. All right, I won't suggest it again. Now, just relax. Every time you move, you lose a lot more blood."

Rummaging around in her pouch, she thought desperately for anything that might help. 'What I would give for a Med Hutch!' In her head she reviewed everything she knew about primitive medicine, because it was quite obvious that no such Hutch was going to appear here. 'Well, you did. But there's no Well here, and no crazy old lady.' She had decided a long time ago that the old bat had had something to do with all this. 'Shut up, brain! Stay on track for once!' She remembered that the primitives had used sewing to close wounds to... reduce blood loss! Now that she had something in mind, it zoomed into her hand. 'But this will be so painful... isn't there something I have that gets rid of the pain?' Something brushed the tips of her fingers. Painfully, she grasped it, and pulled it out, reading the tiny bottle's label. The directions gave her hope. This was to knock someone out! 'Well, you can't feel anything when you're asleep, right?'

Carefully lifting up Mara Rose's head, she tried to get her to swallow the pill, but her throat was too dry. "Could someone get me some water?" Rin was at her elbow, with a pail of water. "Thank you very much. I think I have a cup in here somewhere..." Sky pulled it out of her pouch, then tucked it away into her pocket, so that it wouldn't get in her way, swinging from her wrist like it usually was. Placing the pill on Mara's tongue, the makeshift doctor sparingly poured the water into her patients mouth, to see if she could even swallow. Out of reflex, she did.

Sky heaved a sigh. The pills said it took about five minutes to start working, so she spent the time trying to staunch the blood flow, and maneuver Mara into a position where the needle would have no problems sewing up the wound. It was the same needle that had earlier sewn up her shirt so well. She remember something. "Could I get a fire, please? And some boiling water?" Jaken lit the fire, and soon the water was boiling. Sky's opinion of the man with the tail was slowly dropping as he just stood there, not helping at all. She dropped the needle into the water, disinfecting it as best she could. As this was happening, she glared at the fluffy man.

"You know, you could at least help. You did do this to her." The man raised an eyebrow, but did nothing more. Pissed, Sky turned away, facing her patient again. Fighting now wouldn't be much of a help. Slowly, but surely, Mara was going under, and the needle would be disinfected soon. She hoped.

"And what makes you think that my helping would be any good thing, since she's terrified to have me near her?" His voice made her jump. Her face reddened slightly. Oh, yeah. She had forgotten about that, but she refused to say anything more to the man. Since she didn't turn around, she didn't see the slight smile that was on his face because of her anger. If she had, he would have had more to smile about, because she would have been totally furious.

Taking the needle out of the boiling hot water, she didn't flinch. Already her mind was elsewhere. 'Where do I start? Is there a certain way to go about this?' In the end, she started at the worst looking end, pulling the edges of the gaping wound together to make it easier for the needle to sew, thanking (**place choice here**) that the needle could sew on its own. She had never sewn a stitch in her life, and now wouldn't be a good time to practice.

It took a while, but finally the wound was sewn up, the same way her shirt was, nearly flawlessly. There was a few places where it was obvious that she would have a scar, but they were small and far in between. Sky looked up and sighed, then took out her pouch once again, after cleaning her hands in the much cooled water. She thought hard of the little bottles, and the little boxes that medicine came in in Kagome's time, and thought about what she wanted it to do, which was keep away the infections. She'd never had one, but from what she could remember, they weren't good, and could even cause death. Four came into reach, and she pulled each one out, studying them to see which was one that she wanted. Two suited her purpose, and she gave them to Rin, saying,

"I think you're supposed to put this on the wound every day, with a new bandage – which I almost forgot to put on, hold on a second–" she pulled out a shirt of hers, and, using scissors that glowed blue like her needle, she cut the fabric into strips, then bound the area around and over the wound. "– Now, as I was saying, you need to change the bandage every day, and apply the medicine liberally to the sealed wound." Her voice lost its serious, busy, unfeeling tone as she saw the worried look on the little girl's face. "Don't worry, I think she'll be all right. She's not bleeding anymore, and the medicine is just to keep away infection. I'm sure Mara Rose will be fine. I'll leave you more Orchilum strips too, for the bandages. They're very tough, and should prevent anything from hurting her further, even if it's an attack from your fluffy master." She ruffled Rin's hair. "You remind me of one of my friends' kids. She is about your age right now, and looks a lot like you, just maybe a bit taller. Her name is Rachell, though everyone calls her Randy, don't ask me why, I don't know." Sighing, she got to her feet, and started to walk away.

Stopping in mid-step, she whirled back around and asked the man with the tail, "Which way back to Kagome and the rest?" He said nothing. "Well? Aren't you going to answer me? Or are you just going to stand there like a deaf monolith? Um, I suppose monoliths are all deaf anyways, they are just rocks... But that's besides the point. Are you going to answer me or not?" He just looked at her. Her eyes narrowed into slits. He may be cute, but boy, was he annoying, just standing there, all silent like. "Fine." She turned right back around and started off in one direction. 'If I walk far enough in only one way, surely I'll find an end to these woods somewhere, right? And then I can follow a road to a village, and ask if they know where the Bone Eater's Well is.' Right before she entered the woods, a flash raced in front of her, and she crashed into a solid chest, a bit of fuzz tickling her nose. Looking up, she saw amber eyes.

"Let me pass." More silence. "GR! You are _so_ annoying! Fine, if you won't let me go this way, I'll just go that way." Turning on her heel, she stalked across the clearing, past her former patient, Rin, and that creepy frog thing, and tried to exit the place directly across from the site of her first attempt. Yet again she was stopped by the guy with the tail. "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" She yelled in his face. Finally, he spoke.

"You are going to look after the human. Rin is too young. Because of that, you can't leave." Sky's rage grew.

"And who decided this! _You_! So! I don't gotta listen to what you say! Leave me alone!" He didn't budge. "Look, buddy, I don't give a dang what you can do with a sword. Let me pass, or you'll force me to hurt you." Still nothing. He was just staring at her with those unreadable eyes. "Man! You make me so mad!" Instead of carrying out her threat to hurt him, she ran in the other direction, hoping to reach the other side before he did. No luck. "All right! You've done it!" Sky took a swing at his head, and a swing at his gut at the same time, bringing up her knee to try to catch him in the balls too. This made her position very unstable. He easily dodged her blows, and knocked her off balance with a touch to her forehead. She fell hard, landing on her backside. Sky sagged her shoulders, pretending defeat, but shot out her legs to try and knock his out from under him. While he was dodging that, she leapt up and grabbed his tail, swinging wildly. "WHEE!" She screamed as she swung in a large circle around him by his own tail. He waited, and snatched her off when she passed within easy reach by the scruff of her neck. Sesshomaru shook his head. The woman was insane, he was starting to think. There she was, dangling at the end of his arm, and she was still trying to swing at him, not admitting her defeat in the slightest. It annoyed him.

"Stop it." He said, so quietly that she did stop, so that she could hear what he was saying. "You can't escape. Stop trying to fool yourself into thinking you can." There was still that stubborn expression on her face. He sighed. This woman was one of the odder ones he had ever met. Probably because she was human. "Fine, as you say. You can keep trying to escape, and the moment you do, I won't come after you. But until then, you have to take care of this woman, until she is healed. Is that agreeable?" Sesshomaru could see that she was thinking it over, and watched as her eyes strayed over to his shoulder, where his tail was. He suppressed another sigh. What was with her and his tail!

"Fine. Not because I don't think that I can escape from you, but because Rin really is too little to have to take care of Mara, though I'm not sure I can do any better of a job. But tell me this: just who the hel-heck–" she changed her words, mindful that a child was present, "are you?"

"He is the great and mighty Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken broke in. He'd been silent far too long. "All bow before his might and power! All tremble at his name! All–"

"Don't see you trembling, froggy." Sky cut him off. "And, I didn't ask you. I asked the guy with the tail." She had turned to look at the frog thing as best she could from her position on the end of the man's arm, and now turned back. "Well? Are you going to let your little froggy do all your talking for you?"

"Sesshomaru. Or Lord. Whichever." He dropped her, and walked away. 'This is why you don't rescue humans, idiot! They are all going crazy, and seek to take you with them! Not to mention that they smell...' He walked over to where the trees were, and sat, watching, waiting for her to escape.

'Oh, no,' Sky thought. 'There's no way that I'm falling for that one. I'll escape when you least expect it, Mr. Sesshomaru.' She snorted. 'Lord, my ass.' She settled down next to Mara Rose, waiting for the woman to wake. Rin came over, so quietly that Sky didn't hear her, and took her hand. Pain lanced through the woman from the future. Looking down at her hand, she saw why.

The boiling water she had taken the needle straight out of had burned her hand, and she finally felt it. Her worry and her anger must have been keeping the pain at bay, but now that she had time to spare, she definitely felt it. Rin also noticed her hand.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to–"

"It's alright, Rin, don't worry about it. Hardly hurts at all. I'm sure it will be fine by tomorrow." She said it in as normal a voice as possible, and the child believed her. Grasping the hand more firmly, she settled down next to Sky, resting her head on her shoulder, as they waited together for Rin's friend to wake up. Soon, the girl was asleep.

"So, you got a place for her to bunk down, or what?" Sesshomaru pretended not to hear Sky, pretended to be asleep. "Damn you." Slowly taking her hand from Rin's, she moved carefully, using one hand to open the pouch, and searched around for a blanket. When she found one, she put it over the girl. It immediately shrunk to wrap around her tightly, to keep any cold air from sneaking in. It was one of Sky's blankets, from her own time.

When Mara woke up, Sky gave her some pain pills, and told her that she thought that she was going to be just fine, but to make sure, she was going to stay with her until it was a confirmed thing. Mara Rose smiled at her, still drowsy, and slipped back into sleep. Eventually, Sky followed her, but not before she had covered Mara up as well. 'Ok, that's all my blankets, but I can do without one.' She also laid down, and slept.

As the people he had brought to this place slept, Sesshomaru snuck up on them, and looked around until he located the woman's hand. Lifting it gently, trying not to wake her, he healed it with his sword. 'Stupid human. Didn't even know she was hurt.' Placing the hand down, he went back over to his place at the base of the tree, but instead of sleeping, climbed it. It was a beautiful night up top. Something was bugging him, in the corner of his mind, something about this new woman that didn't seem to fit. It hit him.

Her hair had changed color in the firelight. It had not been black, but a deep blue.

How odd.


	8. Still Trapped

_**Ch: 8**_

_**Still Trapped**_

_**(But Is It Such A Bad Thing?)**_

_WritingWoman: I'm going to write this before I get any complaints. I don't know if someone has to be dead for Fluffy's sword to work. Sure, you can write and tell me, but it's kinda late right now, and I've already written it to my satisfaction. Sort of. Can't ever write anything to my satisfaction. But that's besides the point. No one I knew could tell me for sure, and I thought I had heard something about it being a healer, period. So, please, put up with my inaccuracy (if it is inaccurate) for the sake of my story. It didn't do anything to you, after all._

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Sky woke up in the early in the morning, the moans from the body next to her making her awaken. She winced in sympathy. Mara Rose must be feeling her wounds. She sat straight up, then groaned, trying to bite it back. 'Memo to self: stop sleeping on cold ground.' Grimacing, she flung away a stone that had been right in the small of her back. 'And watch out for rocks when sleeping outside is unavoidable.' Another moan from her patient dragged her out of her self-pity party, and scooted over to where she could reach the bandages. But she didn't touch them, not yet. She didn't trust herself when she was this groggy. Instead, she opened the bag and dug out some more pills. Sky didn't really want to drug this woman again, but she couldn't just sit there and listen to her pain, either.

"Hey, Mara Rose? Are you awake?" The woman rolled over (slowly), and glared at Sky.

"No, I'm sure this is all just a happy dream I'm going to wake up from, and be just fine back at home." Sky glared right back at her, and Mara Rose laughed. This was very scary to Sky, so she just backed away slightly.

"Um . . . you might not want any more medicine . . . you're kinda out of it . . . " Mara Rose stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I'm just tired, is all. For some reason, my side hurts." She saw the other woman's face, and laughed again. "No, I didn't forget, I just wanted to know what you would do if I said that." Mara's face paled, and she whipped her head around, saying, "Where's Rin? Rin? Where are you!" Rin came stumbling through the trees.

"I'm right here, Mara Rose!" A smile was shining bright on her innocent face. "I went to get some firewood. We used a lot of it last night to keep the water hot." Putting down her load of wood, she went to sit beside Mara. "How are you feeling? Are you okay? Sky says you'll be fine." Sky mumbled something that the other two didn't catch, something along the lines of, "Putting words in my mouth . . . said I THINK she'll be fine . . . " Mara Rose looked up at the red faced woman.

"Is that your name? Sky? How nice. Did you help me last night? I do remember something about you . . . not a lot." Her mood darkened. "Where's that one guy?"

"Right here." Mara Rose jumped. Sesshomaru was right behind her. No one had seen him come up. She screamed loudly, and tried to scoot away, then doubled over in pain. Sky tried to keep her from falling over and hurting herself more. She glared at the demon.

"What'd you do that for! You knew how she'd react!" Then she talked quietly to Mara Rose, mumbling together about inconsiderate men with tails. Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at Rin, and walked away. Rin followed.

"Yes, my lord?" She stared up at him adoringly.

"Rin, I want you to stay here and watch that new human. If she tries to run away, invent something for her to do to keep her here. I'm going elsewhere."

"Yes, my lord!" Rin skipped back to the clearing. Sesshomaru sighed. This new human was creating more problems then she was solving. Then he looked both ways, mumbled at the currently invisible Jaken to stay where he was, and stalked off. Jaken fell out of the tree. How had his lord known where he had been! He had made no sound. He snapped his fingers in frustration, and muttered, "Another day . . . " mysteriously.

Rin walked back into the clearing just in time to see Sky walking out. "Sky!" She yelled, slightly panicked. It wouldn't do for the woman to walk off, not when Lord Sesshomaru had said otherwise. "Can you help me get some . . . water!"

'Damn! Why did she have to come back now?' "Um, not now, Rin, I want to go back to Kagome and the rest, to tell them where I am." 'Yeah, right.'

"But you can't leave right now! Have you changed the bandages on Mara Rose's wounds? Should we wash them, or something?"

"Er . . . look, I've told you, I'm not a doctor, we don't even have those where I come from, so I don't know what to do. It'd be better if I . . . Never mind. I already said I'd stay, to help look after Mara Rose. Crap." She plopped down on the ground, dejected, and rested her head in her hands. "Crap." Sky repeated. Little feet appeared in her side vision. Looking up, she said, "Yes, Rin?"

"Water?"

"Oh, right, I forgot, sorry. Hey, Mara Rose, will you be all right for a while? Me and Rin are gonna go get some water."

"I'll be fine. Can't promise the same about the guy with the tail if he shows up." She called cheerfully. Sky smiled, then she and Rin went off, bucket in hand. 'Hey, where'd the buckets come from?' The woman from the future thought to herself, then shrugged it off. Couldn't get water without some way to transport it. Finally, it penetrated her mind that carrying the buckets didn't hurt her hand at all. Looking down, she found out why.

It had healed. 'Uh . . . ' Sky was confused. She was a naturally fast healer anyway, but one night for a burn? Something new. 'Maybe it's the air . . . ' (_A/N: Sky doesn't think her best in the morning. Sounds like me. Why do I always have to have tests in the morning? BTW, my description of morning is anytime between when I wake up, and when I go to sleep.)_ 'Well, I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth . . . '

The stream was not all that far away, and crystal clear, quite sparkly. After filling their buckets, they did head back to camp, but not after they stomped all over a hidden Jaken. He really shouldn't have been hiding in that bush, spying. What he was spying on them for, they didn't really know, and neither do I, in fact. And since I don't, he probably doesn't.

ANYWAY, they arrived back at the makeshift camp with no damage, water, and saw a Mara Rose in pain. Running to her, they fixed her up as best they could, filling her with pain medications, so it wouldn't hurt for Sky to change the bandages.

Where Sesshomaru had gone was back to where he had picked up the insane human woman. He found his brother and the rest of them still there, sitting wherever, being bored out of their minds while the story went on without them. They sprang to life as Sesshomaru appeared.

"Where's Sky? What did you do to her!" Kagome asked loudly. Inuyasha pulled out Tetsusaiga, not because he cared about the odd woman who felt she had to pull on his ears at every chance, but because he just doesn't happen to get along with Sesshomaru well. The dog demon barely spared his brother a glance, and said to no one in particular,

"The odd woman is unable to rejoin you for some time. I will deliver her . . . whenever it is appropriate. Go on with whatever it is you people waste your life with." He turned, and disappeared, not saying anything else.

"Hm. Well, that was vague enough. Can we go now? This one spot is really getting boring. Maybe we can visit some town, rescue them, and be very warmly welcomed be the prettier part of the population." POW "Ow! You know, all the times I get hit on the head, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but nnoo . . . It still hurts whenever you hit me with that giant boomerang. Why couldn't you have something normal, like a fan, to hit me with?"

"Because fans very rarely are able to kill perverted monks, and never able to kill demons. Tell me, then, what use a fan would be?"

"Uh . . . "

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Whatever Sesshomaru did for the rest of the day, who can tell, but he arrived back at camp later that night, just as the sky started to darken. Rin, Sky, and Mara Rose were all sitting around a campfire, and Sky was telling them a horror story. He knew this, because he had arrived at the very beginning, when she told the other two that she was about to tell them a very scary story. If he had walked in halfway through, he might have thought that she was more insane then he had first guessed.

The horror story she was telling went something like this:

"It was a bright and sunny day, when a family of three banana's decided to go for a camping trip. There was a mommy banana, a daddy banana, and a little daughter banana. They all loaded up into their deluxe luxury-line VineX3, and headed into the deep jungle, farther then bananas' usually traveled in their daily lives. They traveled as far as they could before the jungle became so dense that they could go no further. The daddy banana hopped out of the VineX3, and said to his small family, 'Here's our campsite! Let's unload.' It was getting dark, just as it is now, when the little daughter banana was out gathering up some moss to burn, and–"

"But wait," Rin interrupted. "Why didn't they burn wood?"

"Because they lived in trees, and it's not nice to burn something that might be related to your home. Home's can be very sensitive. Be quiet, now, and let me finish my horror story." She cleared her throat. "When the little daughter banana was out gathering up some moss to burn, and she discovered an odd house, not as high up in the trees as they usually are. Curious, as all little banana's are, she decided to go and inspect the odd house. Inside, she saw a thing she had never seen before. Picking it up, she took it back to the campsite with her. 'Daddy Banana!' She said. 'Look at what I found!' The daddy banana gasped in shock and horror. What his little daughter banana held was an old banana peel.

"'Where'd you get that, Little Daughter Banana!' Daddy banana cried. 'Um, I don't really know.' Replied the little daughter banana. 'I can't remember.' She thought a little bit more. 'There were trees close by!'

"'This is a jungle, Little Daughter Banana, there are trees everywhere! Oh, well, we will sleep tonight, and try to return it to it's resting place in the morning. Goodnight, Little Daughter Banana. Goodnight, Mommy Banana.' 'Goodnight, Daddy Banana,' they both said back to him, and went to sleep.

"They were awoken late in the night by a horrifying squishing noise. 'Squish, squish, SQUISH! It was right outside their tent. 'Give me back my peel,' it said, in a tormented voice. 'Give me back my peel! Give me back my peel or become what I am!' The terrified daddy banana snatched up the old peel, and reluctantly took it outside, to give it back to what was asking for it. And what he saw was . . . was . . . " Sky paused, then, "A BROWNED, SQUISHED BANANA!" No one screamed.

"You know, that wasn't all that scary," Sesshomaru said from behind her. She turned around and glared at him.

"Were you in my head today?" Uh . . . Sesshomaru didn't show it, but he was confused. "I was thinking up this story today, while you were gone, and this guy walked into my head, and told me the same thing. But, on the off chance that you weren't the guy in my head, I will tell you what I told him. IT WOULD BE SCARY IF YOU WERE A BANANA!" Mara Rose finally screamed. Sky's shouting had woken her up, the story having put her to sleep. "See? Someone agrees with me."

"She wasn't even awake to hear our conversation."

"So?"

"It still wasn't scary, because, if you haven't noticed, none of us are banana's." She glared at him some more.

"Well, maybe you should try it sometime. Being a banana isn't as easy as it seems, you know." With that, she got up and stalked over to the other side of the fire, away from the cute guy with the tail, then lay down and pretended to sleep. Rin walked up to Sesshomaru.

"My lord?"

"Yes, Rin?"

"What is a banana?" He didn't answer, just went off in the opposite direction of Sky to sleep. Rin sighed. Today was not a good day for answers. She had asked Sky where she'd some from, that it didn't have healers, but the young woman hadn't answered, just distracted Rin with something else. Rin talked with Mara Rose until they felt sleepy, then both settled down for bed.

A long night passed uneventfully, and the sky brightened for another dawn.

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_WritingWoman: But you don't get to find out what happens on this particular day, because I have no idea. So, see you when I do!_


	9. The Next Day

_**Ch: 9**_

_**The Next Day**_

Sesshomaru woke up abruptly, as the sun climbed into the sky. He looked above him; no reason for waking was found there, so he looked side to side, and then behind him. Still there was no reason. Finally, he looked in front of him, and jumped in surprise.

Sky was right there in his face, staring at him intently.

"You know what?" She said, out of the blue. "I think I'm going to be mad at you today." Then she moved off without another word, hunkered down next to Mara Rose, and the two spent the day cheerfully insulting Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru himself spent the whole time doing nothing, just sat there, with a startled expression on his face, all day.

Rin said nothing. She was becoming used to the strange woman, her strange ways, and her entirely freaky habit of popping off into the bushes and reappearing with trays of hot food, enough for them all. She also said nothing because she was too busy wondering just what the hel-heck a banana was. Whew! For a second there, she almost forgot that little kids aren't supposed to swear.

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_WritingWoman: (waggles finger seriously, with serious face) Shame on you, Rin. Little girls aren't supposed to swear. (Grin breaks out on face, and author leaps away laughing like a crazy person; which she just may be, the doctor's haven't decided yet; leaving a thoroughly confused you sitting there. Suddenly, the author straightens, cracks neck, and begins to speak normally) Originally, there was a point to this chapter, but I forgot what it was. I'm entitled to forget some things like that, though. When you can remember who the last pharaoh of Egypt was, but you can't remember which toothbrush – out of two – is yours, you are officially allowed to lose your mind, and forget a few things. Let's move on to the next chapter, yeah?_


	10. The Day AFTER The Next Day

_**Ch: 10**_

_**The Day AFTER The Next Day**_

Rayanne snickered a particularly evil snicker. Messing with this woman from the year L.E. 3299 was so much fun, more so then usual. But the other woman, Mara Rose, would be pronounced healed today, and Rayanne had realized that she had not yet messed with Sky while she was with this group.

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_WritingWoman: ATTENTION, EVERYONE. If you have noticed a change in my writing styles, let me point out two important facts._

_1.) I have just finished reading 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' trilogy, books one through four. No, that is not a typo._

_2.) It is very late, and I have gotten maybe two hours sleep total this whole weekend._

_I also have a third point. The words, 'ATTENTION, EVERYONE' seem to work fairly well at getting a person's attention._

_So does yelling 'FIRE!' but it's illegal to yell that unless there's a real fire, so you're better off with the first option._

_And here's a little known fact: Turtle's can breathe through their butts._

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Well, she couldn't allow that to continue, now could she? She slipped the mask on, and hid in the bushes, waiting for Sky to come get some water. Rayanne heard light footsteps, and prepared to pounce. She jumped.

"I AM YOUR EX–" Rin stumbled and fell on her bum in surprise. A masked woman had just jumped out of the bushes at her, screaming, but had tripped on a stray root, and fallen. What was important was that she didn't hit the ground.

Rayanne ran out of the bushes, trying to make a dramatic entrance, but that stupid root caught her foot and made her go tumbling out of the bushes. Before she hit, Rayanne saw not Sky, but Rin. She totally forgot about hitting the ground, so she didn't.

"Um, is Sky going to be coming this way?" Rin nodded. "Good. Don't tell her I was here, okay?" Another nod, and the little girl got up and walked away. She was accustomed to strangeness, and there was still that plaguing question of what was a banana.

Rayanne absentmindedly got up, and brushed herself off. "What a quiet little girl." More footsteps; she hid again.

This time, it was Sky. She had gone off into the forest to get some lunch. It was just easier to transform the capsules out here, where no one could see, then actually have to explain, so that's what she did. Rayanne jumped out again.

"Why, hello. What's your name, and why are you lounging around in bushes? Did you fall out of this one? Do you want me to help you get back in? If so, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm in a hurry to get back with the food, so I can leave." Rayanne was shocked. Why wasn't she startled!

What Rayanne didn't know was that Sky had been 'conditioned' all her life for such surprises, by her thoughtful brothers who were forever tried to scare her out of her skin, just as Rayanne was trying to do now. Sky was no longer effected. Still, Rayanne decided to plunge on.

"I AM YOUR EXECUTIONER! KNEEL BEFORE ME AND BEG FOR MERCY, AND I MAY JUST KILL YOU QUICKLY!" Sky was just staring at her.

"Have I met you before? You seem awful familiar."

"NO! NEVER! BUT YOU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!" No reaction. Except for,

"Well, Miss. Executioner-Whom-I'm-Sure-I've-Met-Before, did you realize that you're floating? If you haven't, you may want to know." Rayanne realized that, as a matter of fact, she was flying. She quickly dropped. "Oh, I can see you didn't. Sorry about that. I guess you haven't learned the secrets yet. About the missing part."

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_WritingWoman: Oh, sorry about that. I know, that's almost out of the book, but it was so awesome, and it was so obvious, once you thought about it... isn't that what birds do in the first place? Throw themselves at the ground and miss? Anyway, the whole thing that I just wrote, about flying, it came from 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'. So, yeah... I'm a fan! Fan Fiction! Heeheehee... I have no idea what I am saying._

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Rayanne got to her feet, and spoke slowly. "I have no idea what you're talking about. That was magic. Pure magic."

"No, it was simple ignorance of physics. Anyway, what were you saying? Something about me dying at your hands? Well, could you not do that today? I got some stuff to do. Maybe we could set up an appointment?" An appointment Sky intended to miss.

"Uh... sure, I guess. How's next Wednesday?"

"Let me check..." Sky went rifling through all her millions of little slips of paper that she kept all her notes on, until it took so long that Rayanne realized that she was being duped, and immediately began a rush attack on the woman, sword first.

BANG! ping! Rayanne went flying, not quite sure what had happened. Sesshomaru took a deep breath, and turned to Sky, expecting at least some gratitude, which he would blow off.

She hadn't noticed a thing.

Sesshomaru almost fell over in exasperation. He had followed this woman out of the camp, listened to her discussion, then saved her life at the last minute with his mere hand, and she DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! He walked closer to her, to strangle her, when her head popped up, a slip of paper in her hand.

"Yes! I found it! Now, as to Wednesday, perhaps–" she cut off as she found Sesshomaru's face near hers. She blinked a couple of times. "Now, that's magic. You turned from a masked woman into a cute guy! I bet you're great at parties." Sesshomaru snarled silently. "Wow, that's really kinda creepy. You even _grimace_ like him." The youkai's snarl deepened slightly, and he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"It's not a grimace, it's a snarl! I just saved your life, and you're blabbering on about parties!" She wasn't listening, she was just staring at his tail. Again. "What is it with you and my tail!" He asked.

"Well, it's so cute, and soft, and pretty... do you brush it a lot, to keep it that way? By the way," she started to whisper. "I think that frog thing wants to steal it too. You'd better keep it safe from him. After all, he'd probably make it all slimy or something, with his green skin..." She shuddered, and so did Sesshomaru, slightly, at the thought of his beautiful tail covered in green slime. She looked up. "Well, I guess you're the real Sesshomaru, so... could you let go of me? My shoulder's hurt now." He was surprised that they weren't crushed. Abruptly, he let go, and turned. Sky threw a stone at him, not hard enough to really hurt him, but to get his attention. "HEY! Couldn't you have been any nicer about that! ...just drop me like that... jerk... cute... tail... soft..." He turned around, and found that she wasn't there. Sky was attached once more to his tail. "It's so soft!" He pried her hands off. "Darn... couldn't you give it to me as a goodbye present?" Sesshomaru was startled.

"What?"

"Well, Mara Rose is just fine now, no thanks to you and your attempts to scare her. She's tougher then she looks, and besides, that needle did a real good job. Also, is appears that Orchilum has some sort of healing effect... What's wrong? You're not going to give me that tail, are you?" Sesshomaru's face had turned very grim.

"No, I'm not going to give you my tail. And I will go and pronounce if the woman is all right or not. I will not be fooled by you, a human." He made up his mind swiftly, then snatched her up, and went back to the camp.

Mara Rose was sitting there with Rin, playing a game, with the central motif being a banana. They were making it up as they went along. The point of the game was to try to figure out just what this mysterious banana was. Wild ideas were being put forward, and eventually rejected.

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_WritingWoman: Uh, do you suppose I should leave off with the banana's? I probably should, but I get a laugh out of just typing it. It's a weird word... but I am going on about it just a little too much..._

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Sesshomaru interrupted it without thought, barging in, and picking up the woman to see if she was all right. As a matter of fact, she was, and she accentuated the point by trying very hard to kick him in the face, a thing that would be VERY hard to even attempt if she was remotely injured. Sky was still just hanging under his other arm, and Rin watched it all with a level of amusement. Her lord looked very funny indeed, as if he was trying to juggled the two.

Finally, Sky got tired of hanging there (it was rather uncomfortable, not to mention odd...) and bit what she could reach. It was Sesshomaru's side. Well, he wasn't expecting it, and he rather abruptly dropped both her and Mara Rose.

"You _bit_ me!" He said. Sky rose with a large dose of dignity, and brushed herself off, only to be pulled back into the dust by Mara Rose, who was also trying to get up. This time not caring about dignity, Sky scrambled to her feet, pulling Mara Rose up with her. Then she turned to the still astonished Sesshomaru.

"Yes, I bit you. You didn't seem to be in any hurry to let me go, and it was very uncomfortable, hanging there under your arm. Anyway, I have to get my stuff together, for me to go. Hey, Mara, do you want to go with me?" Mara Rose shook her head, and grabbed Rin's hand.

"Sorry, Sky, but I have to stay with Rin, and protect her from _him_." She threw a disgusted look at Sesshomaru, then turned to Rin, who was clutching her hand very tightly. "What's wrong, Rin?"

"You're leaving?" She was asking Sky, and she looked like she was about to cry. "Why?"

"Um... well..." Sky paused. She didn't rightly know. It had seemed like such an important thing there, in the beginning, but now... what was so important that she had to get back to? Kagome and the rest were her friends, sort of, but she couldn't get the Well to get her back to her own time, so what was the point? They couldn't help anymore then these people could. Well, then, wasn't she better off on her own, anyway? Then wasting these people's time? "Because I need to get back home, Rin, and you don't want to be spending all your time trying to help me. I've got a long way to go, but I do have to get back..." She muttered the rest, "...somehow..."

"But surely we can help! Right, Lord Sesshomaru?" He sniffed uncaringly. "See! It's all right. We can at least walk with you some of the way. Is that okay, my Lord?" He sniffed again, not a no, but not a yes. "All right! Let's get going!" Rin started off, leading Mara Rose through a thick part of the woods where it's very hard to get through it you're not a small child. Sky stared. Didn't she get a say in this? She decided that yes, as a matter of fact, she did, then turned and went off into a different direction. She got three steps.

"Didn't you hear her? We're taking you home. Isn't it the place you wanted to go to?" Sky flinched at the voice. 'Almost!' She had almost gotten away. Slowly, she turned, and faced Sesshomaru.

"Well, you see, that's the problem... I don't rightly know where it is... so you can't really walk me even part of the way, because I don't know the way. The paths through time are few and far in between, it could take forever to find the right one..." She got real close to the truth, trying to baffle him (it sort of worked, though she couldn't really tell), then ran like a demon was chasing after her.

Which he was. Then he got in front of her, and stopped her from going any further.

"You can't leave me with a riddle like that. It would be very rude. Now, tell me, what the hell did all that mean, 'The paths through time'? We can stand here all day, if you like. I've got time." And he did, though Rin and Mara Rose were crashing steadily through the undergrowth behind them. He could hear them well, and would know if they were too far away or in trouble.

"It's kinda a hard concept to explain, because I don't really understand it myself. I'm an archeologist, not a physicist. Besides, if I told you, you'd think I was crazy."

"You have no need to worry about the answer making me think you are crazy. I already think that. Now, tell me. We really can stand here all day." Sky glared at him, then spat out,

"What do you think it means! That I come from the other side of the woods! No! It means I come from a different time, you tail-wearing buffoon! What do you think now, huh? Still want to travel with me!" He looked at her very seriously, then tucked her once more under his arm.

"Huh. You really ARE crazy. Well, then, we will try to find you a nice safe place, and until you can prove to me that you won't hurt Rin in a moment of insanity, this is how you're traveling. Jaken," he barked sharply. The imp/toad thing appeared, and bowed low.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Run up ahead and tell Rin to come back. There is an easier way to go."

"Yes, my Lord." He cast an evil glare at Sky, and went to do his master's bidding. Sky twisted her neck to look up at the youkai.

"You know what? I don't think he likes me very much. Do you?"

"Why would he like you? You keep referring to him as the 'Froggy Thing.'"

"Well, that's because that's what he is! If he can't accept that, then he needs to go to some therapy!"

"I suppose you would know all about that."

"Oh, shut up! Besides, he absolutely adores you, and you repeatedly kill him!" He looked at her, startled. How did she know? She smirked at the look on his face, which annoyed him into almost making her head crash into a tree. Sky shrieked in panic, and instinctively moved closer to Sesshomaru. He snarled in show off disgust, and held her away from him. When she realized what she was doing, she did the same thing, trying to move as far away from him as possible under the circumstances.

When Rin showed up, she had to stifle her laughter at the pair. They were arguing, or rather, Sky was arguing both sides for him, mimicking his voice, and Sesshomaru was merely walking along with a pained expression on his face. Mara Rose didn't try to contain hers; she laughed with all her might, eventually falling down.

Later, they were walking along. Sky had fallen silent hours ago, as it was almost four now, and it had been nine when they had started. But now, she was really tired, dust coated, in pain, and, most of all, she was hungry. She was wondering if she should bite Sesshomaru again and try to make a run for it, but decided against it; he would only stop her again. She had finally figured out that she had no chance of outrunning him. Now, she was working on a way of outsmarting him.

But that was all beside the point. She was HUNGRY. So she twisted up to look at him, and said, "Hey, Sesshomaru, would you mind putting me down? I'm hungry, and if I don't get something to eat soon, I may take you up on the offer of being crazy, and take a bite out of you instead." She fell into the dust. Getting up, she didn't make an issue of the rude manner he was using, but instead asked mildly, "So, what's for lunch?"

"Find it yourself, if you're so hungry."

"Could you find some for me, too, Sky? I got the biggest case of the munchies..." Mara Rose added. Sky rolled her eyes, and stomped off into the woods, trying to be as casual as possible, half wishing now that she hadn't reminded Sesshomaru of her supposed insanity. Would he let her go? Yep; she reached the woods at the edge of the road with no interference. Moseying off into the cool darkness underneath the branches, she carefully took the pouch out of her pocket, opened it, and called forth (_A/N: Ack! Over-killed phrase! Over-killed phrase!_) some capsules, and turned them into food. The first tray she gobbled down instantly, but never had a chance to eat the second.

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_WritingWoman: Bye, ya'll!_


	11. The Tavern

_**Ch.11: **_

_**The Tavern**_

Rayanne fell to earth many miles away, in the middle of a small village. She jumped out of the crater, screaming about being an executioner. The fall had knocked her head a little. And, unfortunately, the village was in full market-time swing, so there were plenty of people to witness both her fall and her miraculous rise from what should have been her grave. Then the whole screaming about being an executioner . . . it was just more then they could take. They let out a collective scream and ran as fast as they could out of there, not to come back until nightfall.

The would-be executioner regained her wits, and started off the way she had come. For this, that woman would pay. And the demon too, for breaking her katana, and flinging her halfway across the country! Yes, the demon too! On the long walk that she took to find her prey, she thought of many ways to exact revenge.

Oh yes, they would pay . . .

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Suddenly Sesshomaru was there, and he had snatched away all her trays of food.

"How did this get here?" He asked, in his very calm voice.

"Uh . . . I found it?"

"Final answer?"

"Sure . . . "

"Wrong. I saw what happened. So," he continued, still very calm. "...you are from the future, then. You're not crazy."

"Or . . . _you_ could be crazy. Wait! No, I didn't mean that! I'm not crazy! You're not crazy! Let's just go with that one, okay?" Sky could have kicked herself for giving him a possible second answer. He didn't seem to have heard her, though. He was staring at the trays with those inscrutable eyes. Sesshomaru took so long to say anything that she even thought he might have fallen asleep with his eyes open, so she started waving her hands in front of his face. Nothing. His eyes remained glassy. Sky snuck up real close to his face, and started making very absurd faces at him. When nothing else happened, she decided to reach out and make faces with his face, but she had barely touched him when he _disappeared_. Screaming, she fell backwards, landing in the dirt. Then, just as suddenly as he had vanished, he reappeared, standing above her.

"What happens in the future?" He asked her. Sky's eye twitched.

"YOU COULD AT LEAST HELP ME UP!" She yelled at him. Sessho raised an eyebrow. "You want me to tell you, right? Well, you could at least be nice about it, and help me up. You weren't raised in a barn, were you?" She continued to mutter as he helped her up, but he did it so swiftly she was still complaining before she realized she was on her feet. "Oh, yeah, well . . . thanks, I guess. You know, you're bad luck. I keep falling to the ground when you're around. Do you think you're jinxed?"

"Now. The future. What happens?"

"Same thing as in the past, really. Wars, destruction, invasion, and meeting new peoples. Not much new at all. Technology, yes, but other then that, the human race is majorly the same."

"What about demons?"

"Well, several thousand years ago, my time, they were proven to exist, though they had, as a species, died out. This was LONG after they lost their religious status as punishers of the sinful. Then, on this one planet, discovered not more then three hundred years ago, there was a species that greatly resembled the demons in the tales, with the powers and stuff, but they were rather peaceful." Sessho looked like he was going to puke. "What? I'm only saying the truth. Did you know that truth was also a species? Some people say that a few are still hiding out on their home planet, but I think the rest of the universe twisted them all into Falsehoods. The Falsehoods are an okay people, if you're just looking for a good time, but you can't trust them with anything."

"Trust isn't a species as well?" Sky snorted.

"Of course not. Why on Station would you think that?" She shook her head at him. "Sometimes I worry about you . . . " Then she noticed a fact that had previously escaped her attention. "Oh, shit. I knocked over the food when I jumped, didn't I? Thank you _so_ much, Mr. Sesshomaru! You know what, because this is all your fault, you have to find dinner now. And, I won't stop annoying you until we get to some place with some form of bed or another." She went into this really annoying routine that I can't explain without annoying the crap out of you.

It took a while (_really only like five seconds; seriously, it was so annoying, and now she won't stop doing it whenever she wants something. Does anyone have a spare tranquilizer gun?_) for her to wear Sesshomaru down, but eventually he cracked, and went off to go find a place to spend the night.

"Stupid, bitchy human . . . " He muttered as soon as he was out of hearing range; he didn't want the routine to start again.

Sky went back to where the others were waiting.

"Hey, Sky, where's the food?" Mara Rose asked her. "You promised me food."

"Did not! And we're getting something better then food. Well, we're eating, too, but we get a bonus! We get to sleep in real beds! I don't know about you, but I was so sick and tired of the ground . . . "

They were really starting to be hungry when Sesshomaru finally came back, and the sun was setting.

"I have procured lodgings for the night. Rin, you and the women will have adjoining rooms. Jaken, you will sleep in the stable. The innkeeper insistseverything is on the house, so order whatever you want for dinner. Don't Attract Attention To Yourselves. Human, with silver eyes–"

"My name is Sky, you condescending old fart! Use it!"

"–you will change into these clothes to be less conspicuous." He tossed them at her, and continued to speak while she inspected them. "This is the only place with beds that is reachable without walking for the next few days, with as slow as you humans go. Do not destroy anyone or anything without my consent." There was a moment of silence, then,

"You **CAN_NOT_** be expecting **ME** to **WEAR _THIS_**! There is no _way_ this is less conspicuous then my clothes!" Sesshomaru didn't even bother looking at her when he answered.

"You will, and where we are going, at _your_ insistence, I might add, this is most common. Much more common then what you have on." It might have done him good to look; Sky attacked him, at first jumping over his head, then grabbing onto his tail to keep herself from going beyond him. He grabbed the other end, so it would be easier to get a hold of her. When she discovered that this was his goal, she decided to do as much damage as possible before he could, so Sky viciously pulled out whole handfuls of fur.

While this squabble was going on, Mara Rose examined the outfit; Rin and Jaken watched the fight with interest. Sesshomaru, oddly, was trying to get rid of the human without hurting her. 'How unlike my lord.' Jaken thought worriedly. 'Maybe he really IS ill . . . ' 'Hee!' That was Rin. 'They like each other!' She smiled happily, and didn't hear Mara Rose's gasp of shock.

Mara Rose's cheek burned with embarrassment as she gazed on Sky's new outfit. 'Oh. My. Um . . . ' The outfit was that of a common prostitute, very short, blood red, with a cut on both sides of the skirt. The top was hardly there, merely a corset that pushed up the breasts, and the smallest strip of cloth possible to cover the breasts themselves. It was only held up by two thin straps of fabric that would ride low on the shoulders.

The fight was over.

"**I'M NOT WEARING IT!**"

"Then you're not sleeping in a 'real bed' tonight, are you?" Sky looked at the hard ground, then lowered her head.

"Fine. I'll wear it. But I want someone to lend me a coat or something to wear over it!" Mara Rose already had one in hand. Sky would have worn one of Mara Rose's clothes, but being a once upon a time slave, Mara didn't have more then one set of clothes, and a coat.

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_W.W.- No, I don't know it they had coats or not, or how they treated their slaves, if they had any. But Mara Rose has a coat, she's close to Sky's size, so . . . yeah. And it's a biggy, like my favorite types of coats: almost a trench coat, it's so long, but it doesn't cost as much. Anyway, this is good for Sky, because I guess . . . she's not comfortable in a whore's outfit. Again, I don't know if their prostitutes wore stuff like I described, but for my purposes, they do._

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It took a few hours to get to the tavern, but get there they did. The whole trip was very tense, because there was a gloom pervading the group, coming from Sky. It was weird, to not have her talking all the time . . . Sesshomaru seemed not to notice.

When they did reach the tavern, the mere sight of it made Sky have second thoughts. Even with the dress out of the equation, the tavern was still bad enough. It was run down, and there was a lot of noise coming from inside, lots of shouting and drunken laughter. The sign hanging outside it was almost nonexistent, but what was left read: '_The Tavern_'. Someone, whoever owned it, she supposed, didn't have a lot of imagination. Sky was looking at it with despair when suddenly Sesshomaru was right next to her, and he whispered,

"Remember, _you_ wanted to come. We can still turn back, if you've . . . changed your mind." She threw a disgusted glance at him, then straightened her shoulders and walked right in, in front of the rest, with Sesshomaru in the very back. Sweeping inside, she didn't look right or left at the vicious cutthroats lining her path, just made her way to a table in the corner, and sat down. Her friends joined her, and soon a 'waitress' (quotations because she was dressed a lot like Sky) came up to their table, and asked what they wanted.

Pulling Mara Rose's coat closer around her, Sky said, "I'll have a blembem of Greffen Stew, with a StromtaJinx to drink, and a small salad." The waitress just looked at her oddly, then turned to Sesshomaru.

"She means she'll have beef stew, and rice balls. I'll have the same, but with a bottle of your best sake, and everyone else will have the same thing the woman is." The woman nodded, and walked off, not paying any attention to the beating her rear took from various men as she made her way to the kitchen.

Sky glared at Sesshomaru, who was sitting directly opposite her, with his back to the wall. "I could have ordered for myself, you jerk."

"Yes, but not food known to anybody here."

"Does she live that far away, my lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked. She sat right next to him, with her eyes averted from the rest of the room.

"Yes, Rin. The woman lives very far away indeed." Rin turned to Sky.

"So, where do you live, Sky?"

"Rin."

"Yes, my lord." Rin shut up, and asked no more questions. The food arrived, and, after making a face, Sky was soon gobbling down the food she had never seen before. Except the rice balls. Those, she didn't like at all, so she merely contented herself with bowls of soup.

They were halfway through their not half bad meal when the door opened again, and everything stopped for a minute, as all the people inspected the new arrivals, then went back to whatever they were doing. Hey, you can't be too careful when there are people after your head. Sky stared a bit longer then the rest, and so the next sequence of events.

The men in the doorway were better dressed then the rest of the people there, and their eyes were full of mischief as they took stock of the room. The owner of the tavern himself jumped up, greeted the four men, and booted some other men out of a table to give the better dressed men the best seat in the house. Then, walking away, he sent four of the 'waitresses' to serve them, one per man. Sky watched this in fascination. What was _this_ strange ritual's meaning?

While she was busy staring at the newcomers, one of the more handsome men just happened to look over (_A/N: I had nothing to do with it!_), and spot her. She was turned around, and the coat was gaping open. Before she knew it, he was kneeling in front of her, holding her hand, and pouring out all the sappy words he thought she might want to hear.

Sky blinked.

Well, this . . . was . . . unexpected . . . She looked down, and noticed the coat issue.

"Shit!" She blushed furiously, and jerked her hand away from his to shut the coat better.

"Wondrous lady, why do you hide such eye-dazzling beauty? For one so beautiful as yourself, to hide would be a monstrous shame! Please, lady, come and join me at my table for a drink. Please grace our humble table with your brilliant light!" Sky just sat there for a minute, then Sesshomaru stepped in between them.

"She's staying." That was **_it_**! Sky was SO pissed at his high-handed attitude.

"Sure, Mister, I'll come and share a drink. It'd be nice." She stepped past a baffled (though he didn't show it, of course) Sesshomaru, a silently laughing (though slightly horrified) Mara Rose, and took the man's hand. As they walked away, she quietly asked him, "What's your name, sir? You can call me Sky."

"A gorgeous name for a beautiful lady! I am Rame Tashino. I have a modest estate on the other side of the forest . . . where do you hail from, Lady Sky?"

"Oh . . . very, very far away, in a different country. The man with the tail and the others are my friends that I'm staying with on my journey . . . " Sesshomaru stared at her back as she walked away, and disappeared before she even sat down at her new table. Mara Rose gathered up a sleepy Rin, and together they went up to their bedrooms.

It was almost midnight when Sky walked away from Rame's table, and stumbled up to her room. She had disinclined his invitations, to either go to his place or to walk her up to her room, by pleading exhaustion. Tiptoing past Rin's and Mara Rose's rooms, she entered hers as quietly as possible. But instead of going to bed, she looked out the window, and gazed on the stars. They were so pretty, but there were so few of them, compared to what she was used to seeing, back in her own time, from the Station windows. A wave of homesickness washed over her, and in her hazy condition, she decided to get closer to the stars, by climbing up onto the tavern's roof. Thankfully for her, the very topmost area was flat, and easy to sit on, not to mention close to her window (_A/N: Again, I had NOTHING to do with it!_).Struggling slightly, she nonetheless made her way safely to the flat spot.

Someone was already there. It was Sesshomaru, and he already had the best place on the roof, right next to the chimney, where it was warmest. Sky staggered over to where he was, and sat next to him, not noticing that he was ignoring her. Well, he ignores her so often . . . (lol) (_A/N: Sky is drunk. All her words are translated for easy understanding_)

"You know, the stars really aren't that bad here. They just look better from space!" She turned to look at him, bleary eyed, expecting him to know what she was talking about.

"You lived in space?"

"Yep! A lot of us do, in the future. We live in space because it's sure to have oxygen, the right foods, and all that good stuff that keeps us alive."

"I thought space was empty."

"Oh, it is."

"Then how does it have all this stuff?"

"We live in Stations."

"Which are?"

"Big houses in space."

"Ah." Silence. "What did you do, in your time?"

"I was an archaeologist, studying anything I could find that was left on Earth."

"Left?"

"Yeah. We all blew each other up, those that didn't escape into space."

"In the Stations."

"Yeah." Sky laughed a little. "My Family, though, rejected my family." He just stared at her. 'That doesn't make sense.' He thought, in the same unemotional voice that he spoke in. "Here, I'll explain. My family is the skeleton in the closet for the bigger Family, all because of my dad. Wanna know why? There are five Families on the Home planet for my dad, okay? And they all take care of dead bodies, hold all the sacred knowledge for burials. My Family, the portion still talked to by the other five, ruled over burial by fire, so the Pyre's. The rest are the Aerials (where the body is consumed by birds, ALL of it), the Mumms (who mummify bodies), the Riptides (who prepare the body before it is shipped out to sea, to be eaten by fish and sea birds, eventually), and the Burials, who just bury bodies in the dirt.

"But see, my dad decided not to go into 'the Family business', so he was disowned. He hadn't learned any really important stuff yet, so he wasn't put to death or anything. Just banished from the Family. Stupid stuffy bastards." She said, but she smiled. "That's where the eyes come from, my dad. Something about seeing the souls of the dead. He told me all the legends, once, but I forgot most of them. They are basically useless, because I'll never be in the Family. I never see him anymore. My mom, I saw her too much. Yeah, you gotta love her, but boy, does she ever get on your nerves! Anyway, we're not part of the Family because my dad gave up the job, and then he married my mother, who wasn't even from the same planet, so he gave up all hope of anything that included the Family, and he gave up any hope his children might have had too." Sky spoke, but she wasn't paying attention to the words coming out of her mouth. She was watching her hand swing back and forth in front of her face, making the stars disappear and reappear. Suddenly, she stopped, her hand still in the air, and pointed to a spot just left of it.

"You see that star? Right there, next to my hand? That's the star my father's home planet circles. And that one, over there? That's where the Station would be, if you looked at the sky in my time. I figured that out, first day here." She sighed. "I kinda miss them sometimes. My older brother, especially. He was a really nice guy. He also told me Family legends, because he was going to be a mortician, no matter what the great Family said. Legends concerning why we live so long, why we're all so cheerful all the time, though of course we go through our depressions, not being full-blooded Family." She whispered now, as if telling him a big secret in a crowded room. "You see, they say that the Family are all very cheerful people, and that's why, at the very beginning of time, they were chosen to take care of the dead, because they could handle the grief without going mad. But, they don't live as long as we will, me and my brothers. We will even have longer life spans then even my mother, because we have two peoples with very long lives to draw our DNA from."

"What's DNA?"

"Huh? Oh, just what makes us . . . us. What makes us have black hair, twenty eyes, or a big fluffy tail!"

"How does that make you live longer?"

"Dunno. But that's another reason my father's former Family was chosen. They seemed to defy death with their long lives, when seen in the eyes of the primitives of their home world. My mother's people just live a long time, and have all these other genetic advantages, like getting stronger as you get older. My mom, she's as thin as a twig, but if she and my father, who's almost grossly strong looking, got in an arm wrestling match, she would win only too easily. I think she's turning 327 this year." She giggled slightly. "Hm, I talk a lot . . . "

"Yes, you do." She giggled a little more. The tavern door banged open under them, causing her to squeal and jump. Sky would have fallen if Sesshomaru hadn't caught her about the waist, and brought her back to the roof. Rame and his buddies stepped out into the small glow of light created by the open door. Their voices floated up to the pair on the roof.

"Haha! What a night! I knew it was a good idea to come here!" The man who said this pulled the prostitute next to him closer and nuzzled her neck. "Wasn't it, dearie!" She laughed a little.

"Yeah, but that stupid bitch in there backed out on me at the last minute . . . What was the big idea, wearing a dress like that if she wasn't looking for some! And what was with the coat!"

"Aw, poor Rame! Can't even get a whore . . . " The rest of the men laughed at him.

"Yeah, right. Shut up! I bet she was only stringing me along, hoping for a couple extra bucks, before going up to her real customer for the night." Here Rame snorted. "Bet it was the guy with the white hair. Bet that's why he acted so weird . . . "

"See, I tell you, Rame, you can't try to sweet talk 'em! You just got to go and tell 'em what you want!" Sesshomaru was having issues above them, trying to keep Sky from jumping off the roof and killing the men below. She whispered fiercely at him,

"Let me get them! Can't you hear what they're saying about me! About you! And you're just going to sit there!" He pinned her at his side, keeping her arms from flailing about and attracting the attention below. Finally, they were out of sight, and Sky quieted, so he released her. She turned to look at him.

"You're kinda weird, you know that?"

"Like you can talk."

"Well, I got my reasons to be weird, and I'm sure you've got yours, but why wouldn't you let me go kill them?"

"Because I didn't want to have to deal with it, and I'm sure you don't really want blood on your hands." He looked at her too, but Sky wasn't looking at him anymore. She was looking back out at the stars. Then, sighing, she dropped her head onto Sesshomaru's shoulder, and wound her fingers into his tail. Sesshomaru said, "You're drunk, aren't you?"

"Eh . . . just a little."

"You reek of sake."

"Thaz nice . . . " Sky yawned, and started to drift off to sleep, but Sesshomaru didn't move. Instead, he said,

"Sky, you didn't really _like_ that Rame guy, did you?" Another yawn.

"No, not really. He was being really annoying and sappy. I just did it to piss you off, because you keep making my decisions for me. That's really old fashioned, you know. Then again, I guess, you are too . . . living in the past and all . . . but no, I didn't really like Rame. Especially not after what he just said about me. I told you–" Bigger yawn, "–that this dress wasn't a good idea. Hm. Did you know you're cute?"

"I believe you already told me that."

"Well, you're still kinda cute. Annoying, and scary as hell sometimes, but cute. One of my favorite Old Writers said it best. 'You're a scary son of a bitch, Mister. **Cute** as hell, but scary.' Neil Gaiman, voice of Ruby in the Sandman series. Really good . . . " She was almost asleep. "Sesshomaru?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a family?"

". . ." He was relived she had fallen asleep, so he didn't have to answer her. He looked

down at her, and was startled. The moon had risen, and was shining brightly on them. Her hair had changed color again. It was black with gold streaks through it. Sesshomaru shook his head, and picked up the woman, intent on taking her into her room. He had gone through the bother of scaring the owner into giving them free rooms here, after all. Seeing her in his arms, though, he saw just how fragile and easy to break she looked, how small. But when he tried to put her down on her bed, he discovered how false the impression was. He had to wrestle a moment, trying to get her hand out of his tail. It had a death grip on him. While he tried to do that, she slept on, with an innocent look on her face. 'Damn. What is it with her and my tail!' He thought to himself. This was really baffling him, her odd fascination with his tail. 'Even in sleep, she wants to possess it . . . ' He finally got free, then exited the room via the window without a backward glance.

Okay, maybe one, but you can't tell Sky about it.

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_W.W.- Hey, sorry that this chapter was so long, but I haven't written in a while, and I had to get it out of my head while I could, before the words went away again. It's really weird, I'll have this idea about where the story's going to go in my head for the longest time (if I don't forget it, that is), but I can't find the words to write it with. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Bye!_


	12. Perdictable Isn't The Right Word

_**Ch.12**_

_**Predictable Is Not The Right Word**_

_WritingWoman: TSB, You are like, the most awesome reviewer ever! Thank you so much for all the compliments! (starts crying) You're SO awesome! (stops crying, too happy) Ack! The nanners! RUN AWAY! This is the most current chappie I'm working on, so sorry the thanks came so late! Thanks too to SapphireGlass, who already knows she's awesome! & OtherSide, you rock too!_

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Rayanne thundered up the tavern steps, knocking drunks and other peoples (demons too) of all sorts out of her way. '_Third door to the left, third door to the left..._' She had threatened the tavern owner into giving her the location of Sky's room, though he swore that the man with the white tail had not 'rented' a room. As the owner of the tavern watched the freaky woman go up the stairs, he shook his head. He was getting too old for this business. A 'waitress' passed by. 'Then again...' he thought, and started laughing in the middle of the main room. No one paid much attention.

Sky turned over in her sleep, attempted to sit up, and moaned in pain. A hangover was already coming on, and morning had only just started, the wide blue was only gray. She flung her hand onto the night stand beside her bed and felt around for her pouch. Opening it, she pulled out a small red pill, though it made her moan again in pain to think that hard. Before she moved another muscle... Rayanne burst through the door.

"Be quiet!" Sky whispered in a small voice. "Don't you have any respect for the dead!" Rayanne blinked.

"But... you're not dead... are you?"

"Unfortunately, no. But do you mind shutting up? I have a monster of a hangover coming on, and I need to take this pill to avoid it. So... shut up and hand me that damn glass of water." Rayanne did so, and Sky finally swallowed the pill. Sighing, she smiled, turned over, and attempted to sleep some more.

"WAKE UP!" Rayanne flipped the mattress over, sending Sky sprawling on the floor. "DAMN YOU, WAKE UP! I'M HERE TO EXACT MY REVENGE! THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS WAKE UP!" Sky peeked over the edge of the mattress.

"Fine, fine, I'm awake. Jeez, the least **_you_** could have done was give me another five minutes... Do you mind turning around? I've gotta change. This dress is not for me. Then you can exact revenge or whatever."

"Uh, sure, I guess..." She turned around, and listened to Sky getting dressed, to make sure she wasn't actually attempting to break out. "Could you hurry up? I've got a busy schedule. You're not the only person I've got to take out my wrath on today."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." There was an awkward pause as neither woman had anything to say. "Alright, I'm done. You know, you're really not that good at this evil villain thing. This is, what, the third, second, time you've tried to do me harm, and here I stand, fit as a fiddle. You should get some lessons or something..."

"Look, you, I've had a BAD couple of days. Don't try this bullshit on me today, I'm not going to fall for your stalling tactics this time. I'm not going to wait until your cute body guard shows up. I'm going to get him later, on my own time. Just follow me downstairs, and not a peep."

"You look. It's not like I've had any better time. I don't know what you're talking about with the body guard, but if you'll wait a second, I want to write Rin, Mara Rose and Sesshomaru a letter telling them I've gone to meet my doom, and not to worry, k? And a bath would be nice too..."

"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Well, I guess the letter is fine, but... wait, no! Never mind, we're just going! Now follow, and remember, not a word!"

"See? Now this is more evil like. All right, all right, I'm coming! You ain't gotta try to stab me! Can't even get a bath... do you know how long it's been since I've been through a rayer!" Sky was still complaining as she walked down the stairs with Rayanne, and entered the tavern again. It all fell quiet, even Sky, as she looked around the place, and everyone else stared at her. 'Well... I suppose Sessho was right... everyone's pants here are much more poofy then mine... and a lot darker in color... I kinda do stand out, huh?' Rayanne also noticed the silence, and cursed Sky's inability to blend in. Even Rayanne was wearing a standard kimono.

"Come on, walk faster!" She dragged Sky behind her, and they swiftly left the tavern, Sky disappearing from view with a final wave and smile. The people in the room all blinked in unison, then went back to their various activities.

"So," Sky said when they were out of sight of the run down establishment, "Where are we going, Miss Executioner?"

"Oh, you remember that NOW, do you? I wasn't going to kill you then, but now that you and your protector humiliated me, AND broke my katana, well, you see, you just have to die."

"Okay, now I'm confused. What protector? I just looked up, and instead of seeing you, I saw Sesshomaru." She laughed a little. "For a moment, I even thought he was you! Isn't that funny? You see, I had thought you had changed INTO–"

"NO, it's NOT funny, and I don't care what you say! You distracted me, then had the –Sesshomaru, is that his name? It is? Okay– then you had Sesshomaru ambush me, and break my katana!"

"Sesshomaru ambushed you! How rude! I keep telling him that he has to get manners, but does the fool ever listen? No! One day, I swear, he's just going–"

"Will you stop talking! You're distracting me, and I don't want to kill you now, I have everything set up already!"

"Okay, well, I wouldn't want to rob you of your revenge."

"I said shut up!" They ran on in silence for a while, when finally Sky couldn't take it anymore.

"Er... so, heard any good jokes lately?" Rayanne didn't answer the question, but sighed in relief as the site came into view. It was a cliff, very steep, smooth as glass all the way to the bottom.

"Come on, it's time." They disappeared from the ground.

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Rin slowly woke up, blinking the cloudiness from her eyes. Stumbling across the small room, she used the water in a basin to splash her face, then made her way over to Mara Rose's room.

"Mara Rose? What time is it?"

"Just a bit after dawn, Rin. Have you seen Sky anywhere? She's not in her room."

"Nope! Just woke up! Maybe she's down in the common room, eating breakfast or something. Do you know where my lord Sesshomaru is?"

"Rin... no, I don't know. Why don't we go and find Sky? Sesshomaru can take care of himself. At least if Sky's in the common room we'll get breakfast..." They walked out of Mara Rose's room, only to nearly collide with Sesshomaru. Mara Rose screamed and jumped away; Rin merely smiled.

"Good morning, my Lord! Have you slept well?"

"..."

"That's good! Have you seen Sky? Mara Rose thinks she might be getting breakfast."

"She's not here."

"Oh. Do you know where she is?"

"No. Go have breakfast." Rin smiled at her lord, sure everything was all right, and tugged Mara Rose down the steps into the room, where they had breakfast. Sesshomaru walked out, after reminding the tavern owner that the two females were with him, and not to be harassed. Stopping by the entrance of the barn, he spoke to the seemingly empty space,

"Jaken. We're leaving for a time. You are to accompany me."

"Yes, my lord!" Jaken dropped down out of the loft, and hurried to catch up with his master. When he did, he spoke. "My lord? Where are we going?" Sesshomaru said nothing, and Jaken didn't feel like dying that early in the morning, so he kept his mouth shut. Although Sesshomaru was in a bad mood, he didn't want to waste time while the scent was still fresh. Speeding along, they soon reached the place at the edge of the cliff where Sky and Rayanne had disappeared. He stopped, confused. The scent just... vanished. It was there, and then it wasn't. It didn't even reach the end of the cliff, so they couldn't of jumped... Where was Sky? And who was she traveling with? He sniffed deeper. It wasn't the man from the tavern the night before; no, it was someone else. But who?

These questions ran round and round his brain as Sky and Rayanne spoke elsewhere.

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"What the hell! Where are we!" Sky exclaimed. Rayanne smirked at the panic in the woman's voice.

"We're nowhere, but still right above the cliff. Much farther above. About a ten (_I'm not good with math so sorry if that's like outer space or something_) mile drop to the foot of the cliff."

"But that doesn't really give me an answer. I hate nowhere. My last family vacation there sucked, because we got lost every single step. If it wasn't for the Orchilum strips that bound us all together, we would never have found each other after we finally got out. 'Great family trip' my ass... So, where are we?" Rayanne's eye twitched.

"WE'RE HERE!" She screamed, and shoved Sky out of the nothing, and watched as the woman started plummeting toward the ground. 'Well, this is nice,' she thought. 'But why isn't she screaming? She's about to die.' Rayanne shrugged. Maybe Sky was scared out of her mind, like in nightmares, and COULDN'T make a sound. Happy with this logical answer, she continued to watch her enemy fall to her death, and started planning the end of Sesshomaru.

'WHEE!' Sky screamed in her head, the thin atmosphere sucking the words out of her mouth, keeping any noise from escaping her. 'THIS IS SSOO MUCH FUN! EVERYONE SHOULD TRY THIS!' The cliff was coming into view. 'Hey, I think I know that dot! I do know that dot! That's Sesshomaru!' Sesshomaru came clearly into focus, along with the little froggy thing. "HI SESSHOMARU!" The atmosphere was much better here, so she could scream quite effectively.

Sesshomaru watched as Sky dropped out of the heavens and plunged down the cliff in front of him.

"HI SESSHOMARU!" Jaken watched her fall a little more, then got tired of waiting for a splat, so instead he looked up to see what she could have fallen out of.

There was nothing above them.

"My lord?"

"Jaken."

"What did she fall out of?"

"..."

"What she we do?"

"..."

"Will she die?" He asked, careful to keep the gleeful note out of his voice.

"..."

"Are you going to save her?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm waiting to see what will happen." And sure enough, Sky passed by them again.

"DIDN'T THIS JUST HAPPEN! WOW, DEJA VU!" Was what she screamed as she passed this time. Then she started laughing like a madwoman, as she disappeared into the clouds.

"Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Jaken."

"Why didn't you save her?"

"Because it would have been too predictable for her to die."

"Yes, my lord."

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Sky screamed in pure joy as she fell towards the earth, after she passed Sesshomaru. Watching the earth get closer and closer was unnerving her, though, so she started searching through her pouch for something that would help. Sitting cross legged in the middle of the air, she ignored the whistling sound in her ears and looked for something with a bounce. 'Hm... Old World trampoline... no, too used... umbrella? Not enough bounce... that would hurt to land on. Ramen! How the hell would that help! Stupid bag... don't fritz on me now...' Sky thought a little bit more, then realized the answer. "AH HAH!" She pulled the object out from the bag and held on tight.

Rolling in the air, she maneuvered to that the object would strike the ground first, not her. The giant rubber penguin (_It's like ten feet wide_) bounced her high into the air again, so powerfully that she lost her grip on it, and it went careening off into the wide world, where it was dug up a couple hundred years later, brought back to life and made into a giant rock star.

But that's a different story.

Any who, Sky bounced back into the big blue, past Sesshomaru and Mr. Froggy, and right back where she had started from. Literally. She landed smack dab on Rayanne who had moved to where Sky had been so that she could see better, knocking Rayanne out.

Her head spinning, the woman from the future opened her eyes, screamed, and scrambled off of Rayanne. "Ew..." Noticing that the other woman was out cold, she calmed herself down, and looked about her.

They weren't actually in nowhere, they were sitting in the middle of a cloud. "Hm... Wonder how this is possible..." Ducking over the edge, she looked for boosters. And there they were! All innocent and cloudlike, not that clever, just common sense, a simple idea, really. She "hm..."ed again, and felt the platform she was sitting on. Just carpet covered metal. A really cheap rig, when you got right down to it. 'Like one of those really cheap space funeral's that are getting so popular now, one of the ships that they send out the dead bodies on.' Her brother swore that he wasn't going to have anything to do with that, because he knew it wouldn't last long. The Sp. Gov. wouldn't allow it to continue when they realized running into dead bodies were costly in window shield repairs (and crew members).

"Well," Sky said out loud to herself. "How do I get down from here?" A thought wiggled it's way into her head, and she scream/laughed at her own forgetfulness. "OF COURSE!" Digging once more into her pouch, she pulled out a small blue square, no bigger then her pinky nail. "Poof!" She said to it; the square became a small but stylish hover-bike, shaped just like a motorcycle, but it floated and moved at speeds resembling light if it was pushed. Nothing too expensive, just a nice little toy that her father brought home for her the last time he stopped by. Smiling widely, she hopped on, revved it up, and started back toward Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru had never seen anything like what was heading towards him, and knew only that it was aiming toward him like an arrow. Pulling out his whip, he thrashed the thing to tiny pieces, like it was an extremely fragile pinata. But instead of candy falling out, the only prize he won was an irritated human woman who was a borderline psycho!

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_W.W.- I just realized that Sky and I might have more in common then I thought at first..._


	13. The Serious Chapter

_**Ch 13:**_

_**The Serious Chapter**_

"Damn it, Sesshomaru!" Sky screamed at him. "I loved that bike! Why'd you have to go and destroy it! It's not like I was going to crash into you or anything! I know how to drive!" The demon had caught her, but now dropped her into the dirt, and started walking away. Sky scrambled to her feet and followed him, still shouting. "My dad gave me that bike! It actually meant something to me! And to think that a couple of minutes ago, I had been happy to see you..."

"Are you finished? Walk faster. I left Rin at the tavern to come get you." Sky stopped yelling, her voice became worried, and she walked faster, so that she was walking right next to Sesshomaru. She was getting bad vibes.

"Well, it's not like I asked you to come... why didn't you just bring Rin with you? She's so young, she shouldn't be left at the bar... what if Mara Rose left her to go to the bathroom? She's so young..." Sky was now walking faster then Sesshomaru, then started sprinting. Aggravated with how slow she was, Sesshomaru picked her up and began to run, leaving Jaken in the dust.

They were back at the tavern in a heartbeat. Sky jumped out of Sesshomaru's arms, and ran into the common room.

No sign of Rin or Mara Rose. She raced up the stairs and looked inside Mara Rose's room; empty. Sprinting, she slammed Rin's door open, then stopped. Sesshomaru was standing in the middle of the room, note in hand. Sky slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. "Shit." She whispered.

"This smells like the person you disappeared with." He strode over to where Sky was, and lifted her by her shirt to where she was eye level. "I think you'd better explain." She looked at him, not a trace of her usual brightness or animation in her face.

"I... some woman barged into my room, demanding my death. I went willingly enough; if she was going to kill me, I didn't want her to get all of you too, so I didn't make any noises that might have drawn you here."

"And you didn't even fight her about it? I find that hard to believe."

"Well, I didn't think she'd actually do it. She was such a blundering villainess, I didn't think she actually had it in her to kill me. I still wasn't going to risk your lives on it, though. And apparently, she did; she did shove me out of her little 'cloud' rig, after all. But this... well, I guess she'll just have to be punished." The tears dried in her eyes, which became cold and hard, like granite. "Let me see the damn note." He didn't move to give it to her, so she took it, snatching his arm and prying his hand open. Sesshomaru finally got a glimpse of how strong Sky really was. Putting her hand over the wrist of the hand that was holding her up, she said quietly, "Let go or I'll crush your wrist, Sesshomaru." He let her go, and without a sound her feet dropped to the floor. Quickly, she scanned the note.

'Sky,

Though you have so far escaped your doom, you will not be so lucky next time. I have taken your two comrades to insure that you and I will meet again. See! I **AM** a good evil person! Anyway, three days west from here, there is a large waterfall. Get there any earlier or any later then noon on the third day, and I will kill them. You must come to the waterfall alone. One sign of your body guard, and off comes their heads. Three days.

-Your Executioner'

Sky folded the note carefully, and went into her own room to get her pouch. After placing the note inside, she returned to Rin's room. Sesshomaru was still there.

"You coming?"

"The note said..."

"So? That doesn't mean you can't come with me. You seem to know this place pretty well. You probably know where the waterfall is, right?" He nodded. "I, on the other hand, don't; so if I'm going to get there in two and a half days, I'll need some help. And who knows if she's put traps in the way to slow me down?" Silence. "Please, Sesshomaru." For a minute, she was sure he would refuse, as he just stood there, staring at her.

Sesshomaru was stunned by the change in her. Banished was her happy smile and sparkling eyes. Instead in their place was this seriousness, this feeling of cold that radiated from her, her eyes like chips of ice in her face. She had lost the visage of the joyful traveler, and had assumed one of a cold-blooded killer. So, when she asked him to come with her, he took a moment to answer.

"Yes. Follow me." He said, and swept from the room. She followed him out into the common room. Everyone in there shrank into their seats, or quickly got out of their way as the two passed. It was quiet in the room for a while after they left, the coldness of their presence lingering in the air like whispers of death.

Once outside the tavern, Sky quickly fell instep with Sesshomaru, and they began the three day trek to the water fall. When they met up with Jaken, the dog demon told the toad to head back to the castle; he didn't want the frog/bird/ugly thing around. Jaken put up a small protest which Sesshomaru promptly ignored. The ugly little demon glared at Sky, suspecting she had something to do with his dismissal, but soon stopped and ran in the opposite direction when she glared back at him. Her eyes had been just as killer-cold as his master's when he smiled right before the first time he had killed him, but the woman's eyes were back lit with anger, hatred, and a touch of insanity (by the way, if you didn't see the episode where Sessho smiled, I suggest it, because he looks evil... and sexy. Great combo). This sent the spineless toad scurrying for home.

The two had been walking in absolute silence for almost two hours before it really started to bother Sesshomaru. He snuck a glance at Sky. Her face was still devoid of any emotions, staring directly ahead, gaze unwavering, lost in dark thoughts that he was not privy to. This side of her was new, and, he had to admit, unwelcome. He might even... _miss_... the happy, if slightly annoying, Sky. Just a day ago, if he had looked at her, he would have seen a(at the time) ever present shadow of a grin, that had hovered around her lips even when she had been yelling at him, which had been a lot. If he really wanted to think about it, he might find that he even missed her yelling at him. He snuck another glance, and this time his eyes collided with hers.

She was looking directly at him, and with a small shock he realized that they had stopped walking.

"Sesshomaru?" Sky was the first to break their long silence. Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow. "Did you hear me? I said it's going to rain soon." A thunderclap boomed directly after her words, as if proving her right. The scent of rain was heavy on the air, but Sesshomaru had been too preoccupied to notice. He scowled. The human's odd behavior was upsetting him more then he had thought. "Hey, don't frown at me; I don't control the weather." A bit of the demon's irritation washed away. Though small and dry, that last sentence had almost been a jab at humor.

"Thankfully. Otherwise half the world would be dead from lightening." He grumbled, and Sky actually smiled slightly.

"Why, Sesshomaru, what a kind and true thing to say." She pulled her pouch off her wrist and began to rummage through it, coming up with a small black box and two pink and white striped sticks. "Here," she said, handing a stick to him. When he didn't move to take it, she frowned and said (sang), "Come on... it's good for you!" He reluctantly took the stick, earning a bigger smile from Sky. "I absolutely love mint candy. It's a great pick-me-up." She stuck one end of her mint in her mouth. "What? You just going to hold it all day? Go ahead, eat it. It's not poisoned." Then she continued looking through her bag. When she had finally found what she wanted, she turned to Sesshomaru, who had small pink stains ringing his mouth.

Sky started to laugh at him. She couldn't help it! He looked so cute with a little candy ring around his mouth. He was pouting too.

"It's sticky." He muttered.

"Well, _yeah_. It's candy. That's why it makes you feel better, because A, it's good, and B, it makes you laugh just to eat it. Getting all sticky is one of the best parts, along with making a mess." He was looking at her like she was a two year old, but it just made her laugh harder. It felt good to laugh, and Sky immediately felt more optimistic about rescuing Rin and Mara Rose.

As for Sesshomaru, it was a relief to hear her laugh again. You wouldn't think only a couple hours absence would make such a difference... he scowled at her, and tried to clean off the sticky mess. She had been right about one thing, though. The mint had been good.

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_W.W. - Hey ya'll! I LOVE mints! When you need a pick-me-up, and no chocolate (or ice cream) is around, grab a handy-dandy mint candy! Let it melt in your mouth, or, if you're angry, crunch that bastard to bits! Also, it freshens your breath!_

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Sky watched a few seconds, amused, as he tried to wipe the ring away. Obviously, he had never eaten candy before, or heard about its stubborn nature. The second thing she had pulled out of her pouch had been a couple of moist towellettes (I wasn't able to find the correct spelling for that, so sorry if it's spelled wrong!) A brilliant invention, that had not been changed in the future except to make them never dry, and evaporate into oblivion when you were done. Walking over to him, she pushed his hands away, and grabbed his chin, going to work on the stains.

Sessho: -.-U "What. Are. You. Doing."

"I'm wiping the sticky mess away, since it seems to bother you so much. Now shut up." She didn't look him in the eye once as she said it, totally concentrated on cleaning. "There! All better!" Another rumble of thunder shook the heavens above them, much louder and closer then the first one. The dark path was briefly illuminated by a lightening strike. Sky released his chin, and looked up at the heavens. "It looks like it's going to be a real doozy." She glanced at Sesshomaru. "Did you know rain here smells different then on either my mother or my father's home planets? On Hyincea - my mom's planet - it smells like iron. On Dransorthe, it smells like a burning cranchite. I think it's the atmosphere." She had lost him. Too many strange words. "I like this planet's rain. It's not as sweet smelling as Sconth-ki-kik's, but it's very... comfortable." Sesshomaru rolled his eyes, and Sky pinched him, then held the black box high over her head. Though Sky was tall, it was only a few inches over Sesshomaru's head.

"Sesshomaru, lift this box over your head and push the little red button."

"Why?" He asked, suspicious. Sky hid a smile behind her hand. He looked so cute when he was annoyed, and the sight of him with the candy ring kept popping into her head...

"It's to keep the rain off. I'm sure it takes a long time for your tail to dry out." She looked longingly at the tail (I LOVE the tail!). He raised the box over his head and pressed the button. "Better move your hand." Sky warned, and he quickly let go of the box. Immediately, it flattened out and shaped itself into a large circle, using sensing lasers to make sure how big it should be. They heard a small whining noise, then for a second their vision of the world was blurred as a 'veil', of sorts, encircled them. Soon it stopped moving, and their view was crystal clear.

Sesshomaru did not like being closed in, so he tore through the veil into the outside world. It let him pass with no resistance.

"What the hell is that." He demanded to know. She raised an eyebrow.

"It's an umbrella. The shield is to keep splashes off you, and allow you to see better through the rain." He was still suspicious. Sky sighed. "It'll keep you dry... unless you stay outside of it." She walked over toward him, and the umbrella followed her, quickly re-enveloping the demon when she reached him, without him feeling anything but a slight raise of hairs on his arms and neck. "It follows me because I have it's locator in my pouch." She raised the pouch and waved it in his face. "The shield keeps out anything smaller then a fist. That's how come you can pass through it." Another rumble of thunder, and the first few rain drops began to fall. Sky was right: they stayed completely dry, except for their shoes.

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_W.W. - Just a bit of useless information. Sky's shoes are made out of metallic fabric: extremely durable, relatively light, comfortable, and they never rust. The material grows on domenterro's... purple, short, and hairy trees._

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Sesshomaru was forced to stay close to Sky or get wet, and Sky once more became silent and brooding. The rain drumming on the umbrella was the only noise in the whole world, it seemed. Well, besides the sound of the mud sucking at their feet.

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_W.W.- I know I JUST had an A/N, but I have something important to say. My favorite teacher so far this year just died of a heart attack, and if you wouldn't mind... (All characters of every anime/manga/book/movie I've ever read/seen and liked, all my original characters in every story, my whole school... and you, if you would be so kind, gather in a large room)... I would like a moment of silence for a teacher who was awesome and made Bio II fun (room bows heads, and silence reigns). Thank you._

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Soon they came to a wide river, swollen and fast moving with rain. It was pretty dark, but they were lucky enough to stumble upon a rope bridge that crossed it. It looked unsteady, but Sky approached it anyway.

"Don't cross the bridge." Sesshomaru said sternly, and Sky stopped walking to turn and look at him funny.

"Why not?" She asked. "It's fine."

"Do you not see the river barely an inch below the planks?"

"Sure I do, but come on; how dangerous can a river be?" She took another step, but he did not move. "All right, then. You stay here and get wet and I'll cross the bridge safely and continue on, dry, on the other side." With another step, he was outside the umbrella, and the thick, fast drops began to fall on him. Before stepping onto the bridge, she looked back; he looked wet and miserable, and she had the thought that this wasn't what she wanted her last image of him to look like. Then she rolled her eyes at herself. Of course he looked miserable. He's very wet. But that's his own fault, for not coming with her. And what was she thinking about, 'Last image'? She would see him as soon as he came to his senses and crossed the bridge! Still, her feet were hesitant to step onto the bridge.

But Sky did, and though it creaked alarmingly at times, it continued to hold as she gained the middle.

Sesshomaru stood on the bank, and watched as Sky was eventually swallowed by the fog over the river. Perhaps she had been right... but he just had a bad feeling about the river, and he had lived long enough to know to trust his instincts. Perhaps he should have forcibly restrained her... He was staring at the ropes holding the bridge to the shore when they disappeared.

Just vanished.

There was a short scream, but the water was too loud for any human to have heard it. Of course, Sesshomaru had heard it, but for a second he didn't believe it. The ropes had just seemed to wink out of existence. Then he plunged head first into the icy water, fingers working quickly to get out of his heavy armor before they went numb. Slipping out of it, he surfaced, and looked around for Sky. There! The tip of the umbrella showed above the water, and he dove for it, swimming as fast as he could. The water was think with silt, so he was quite blind, but his fingers soon brushed cold flesh, and he grasped it; he had Sky's wrist in his hand.

Sky had only barely felt the bridge give out before she was plunged into the water, the cold liquid flooding over her head. It was a rather weird feeling, being immersed in water. There was dirt and things clogging her nose, getting in her mouth and eyes. She was slammed into a log, another branch quickly followed, smacking her head and making her rather dizzy, so it took a second for her to realize that her foot was caught on something. But by this point, she was too weak from lack of air to struggle against it. Her mother's people need more air, more frequently then other peoples, and that lovely trait had been passed onto Sky. Blackness began to swirl in her vision, and she just let herself be tugged on by the current, though she still didn't move any further downstream. It was very cold.

Then a warm hand nabbed her wrist, and gave a great tug. Suddenly she was free of whatever had been holding her down, and she flew through the water, secure in someone's strong arms. Her head broke the surface, and delicious, precious air rushed into her lungs as she choked out muddy water, the grip on her waist so strong that it was actually pumping some water out of her.

Sesshomaru breathed in relief as he realized that Sky was still alive. Swiftly swimming to the nearest shore, he pulled the both of them out of the water, and out of the pounding rain. In the back of his mind, it registered that the umbrella had disappeared, but right now he was more worried about hypothermia. The rain was incredibly cold, and they both were soaked to the bone. Carrying Sky up the beach, he placed her gently at the base of a tree, and went in search of something to burn. Everything was too wet to even start smoking. When he returned, she was still crouched under the tree, shivering, her lips slightly blue.

"Don't you have something to change into?" He asked, exasperated. She looked at him with slightly unfocused eyes, then grasped at her wrist for her pouch. It wasn't there. Sesshomaru groaned silently. Well, that explained the missing 'umbrella'. Sky blinked at the missing pouch, then a light flared in her eyes as she remembered that there were exactly four folded blankets in her sleeve. She hoped they hadn't been washed away, and reached in her sleeve for them. There were there, and she pulled out two fingernail sized cloths, and pulled on a stray corner. They folded out into blankets, but they were also soaked through.

"No." She finally replied to Sesshomaru, then went back to her shivering. "I've never been this cold." Sky whispered, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her arms.

Sesshomaru looked at her silently for a minute. Surely it wasn't that cold. A great shiver wracked her body, and the demon gave in, sitting down next to her.

Sky noticed the air warming slightly, and she turned her head to see what it was. Sesshomaru had sat down next to her, and though he was as wet as she, for some reason he was a lot warmer. The warmth was too much to resist; slowly, she uncurled herself and started to put one arm around Sesshomaru's waist. He didn't move, and she added the other arm. Still no reaction. Sky sighed and dropped her head onto his shoulder, then gave him a tiny hug.

Sesshomaru had to throttle the urge to gasp when she touched him; she was so cold! He hadn't noticed it so much when they had come out of the river, because they had both been about that cold at the time, but the girl hadn't warmed up at all! Then she had put the other arm around him, and it had been like being thrown back into the river all over again. The demon didn't know why she was so cold.

Soon, though, his heat warmed her up, and her grip on him lessened as she fell asleep._ 'This is second time she's fallen asleep on me in two days! Do I look that much like a pillow_?' But in truth, he didn't mind. He was just about to go to... well, if not sleep, at least doze... himself when he heard,

"Thank you." Sky cleared her throat. "Thanks, Sesshomaru. And thanks for coming with me. I would have died in that river if you hadn't."

"Dying is something only sane people do. I think you're safe."

"I do believe I was just insulted." So she hugged him a little again, but this time she pinched his side a bit too. "Meanie." She said, and he growled lightly.

Sky couldn't believe her ears. Was he... joking with her? Just as importantly, was that his arm draped over her shoulder? As it turns out, Sesshomaru is very comfy, and Sky wasn't even on the side with the tail. And, that was his arm on her shoulder. Sky sighed.

"Should we wait until our clothes are dry, the storm stops, or what?"

"The storm stops. We don't have an... whatever that thing was... now."

"Oh... yeah. Sorry about that. I guess you were right about the river, huh?" He grunted. Sky took a deep breath. She had to do it before she lost her nerve... or her consciousness. But come on, this was a daring feat she was about to perform! "Hey, Sesshomaru?" She turned her face up to look at him, and he looked down at her. As quick as lightening, she planted a little kiss right on his lips, and ducked her head right back down."Thanks." She said again, though she didn't dare look up.

Sesshomaru was stunned, more by this than anything else the strange human had done. Had she just... _kissed_ him? Yes, she had. He didn't know what to do, or what to say... and he didn't want to admit that he wanted her to kiss him again. For longer. And he absolutely wouldn't face the fact that he wanted to kiss her too... So, he did nothing, and soon realized that Sky had passed out anyways, tired from nearly drowning, and then working up enough courage to actually kiss Sesshomaru, even if it had been a tiny, chaste one. After a long while, the rain let up, but Sky did not wake, and she looked so comfortable that the dog demon decided to let her sleep; when she did awake, they would have to walk a lot quicker, but they would be able to meet the deadline...

As long as nothing else went wrong.


	14. A Short Commercial Break!

_**Ch. 14: A Short Commercial Break!**_

_W.W.- Here's a short commercial break from the story! Just... a... bit of... insanity... or something... probably boredom..._

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Sky was walking through some woods, and they suddenly developed faces.

"Cargoborlac!" They said to her, and chainsaws rained from the heavens as the trees transformed from trees into jell-O and back again. She picked up a chainsaw and started hacking away at the biggest tree. It took her a minutes of this to realize that the chainsaw had turned into a herring, and so wasn't doing much damage to the tree. Annoyed, she dropped the smelly fish and bent to pick up a new chainsaw. Starting it up, she turned back to the tree...

To find that it had become the Burger King Guy. Screaming, Sky dropped the chainsaw and ran from the King, who was holding out a sandwich. He chased after her, sandwich in hand, insisting in that smiling, silent way of his that she eat his damn sandwich or die. Finally, Sky could run no further, and turned around to face the Burger King, wishing she hadn't dropped the saw. He took a step forward; she took a step back. Step forward; step back. Then the herring flew down on a washing machine.

"For sparing my life, I will grant you one wish." She told her.

"I wish you were a machine gun with an endless supply of bullets!" Sky cried, and the herring made a funny face of horror, and because said machine gun. Picking it up, Sky yelled, "Eat lead, Burger Freak!" and fired. When he finally stopped walking and fell over, Sky crept toward the body; it didn't move. The sandwich had disappeared. She pulled off the mask, and underneath it was

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_W.W.- I had argued with myself over just stopping right here, but then I thought, 'Do I really want to be that mean?' One of my voices answered, 'Hell yes you do!'. Another one spoke up. 'No! You want to add that one idea!' 'Why do you even care?' spoke one of the depressed voices. 'It doesn't matter.' I told it, 'You've been preaching that since I was three. Would you just shut up now?' He grumbled a bit and went off into his corner. ANYWAY, I continued!_

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some clown.

"Ha-ha-ha-hey! I'm Ronald McDonald, and I-"

"DIE CLOWN!" Sky shot him in the head, and the Ronald McDonald mask shattered. Underneath _it_ was

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_W.W.- I could stop here too..._

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a four leaf clover. Sky picked it up, and it started talking.

"You have defeated my strongest warriors, and for that I will tell you the secret." It raised its eyebrows, and widened its eyes. "He is coming."

"Who? Who is he?"

"He is the one who never stops, not even to go to the bathroom."

"Ew... he has to smell bad."

"Yes he does. You have been warned." The clover faded away.

"Yeah, that's a great warning." Sky muttered. "Can't even tell me anything..."

(Thump thump)

"What was that?" Sky shouted, leaping to her feet.

(Thump thump thump) She started to panic.

(Thump thump thump thump thump thump Times 4 to the square root of pi)

"That was a weird thump."

(THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP)

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_W.W.- Or here..._

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The Energizer Bunny leapt from the treetops, banging on that drum as hard as he could! He landed right in front of Sky, his back to her, and abruptly... _stopped_. The silence was ominous. It's head turned around, a complete 180 degrees, and stared insanely at Sky.

"Are you human?" It ground out in a freakishly high pitched voice.

"I... I think so." Its face contorted horribly, growing fangs and drooling large American SUVs as it grew to the size of a planet.

"DIE!" It screamed, and dove for her.

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_W.W.- And the kicker..._

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Sky woke up.


	15. Well, let's just wait

_**Ch.15: Well, Let's Just Wait and See What I Should Call It.**_

The last drops of rain fell from the quickly clearing clouds, splashing on the green leaves far above the heads of the main characters of this story that I just can't find an ending to (elusive little buggers...). Slowly, Sky awoke to a very comfy 'bed' and the soothing drip-drop noise of water rolling off the tips of leaves. All else was quiet. She was very warm, though her clothes were slightly damp. Moving her head, she found that she was resting on Sesshomaru's shoulder... and that her neck was stiff. Her first reaction was a sleepy smile (After all, Sessho would be a great thing to wake up to...), then a blush as she remembered that she had kissed him.

'Well', she thought, 'We can just pretend that never happened...' Sky didn't know what had made her do that... except for the fact that he was cute, funny, and a rather nice guy if you really dug deep. Besides, he was fun to argue with.

Suddenly she shot straight up in the air, and ran into the bushes.

When Sesshomaru felt her leave, he snapped awake, instantly on the alert. The still moving bushes showed where the human had disappeared to. Moving swiftly, he followed her on her rampage along the river bank.

"Where is it? Where is it? WHERE?" She said frantically to herself, tearing through the foliage.

"What are you looking for?" He said, and at the sound of his voice she stopped abruptly in her search, spun around, and faced him.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up." He said nothing, waiting for her to answer his question. Unnerved by his stare, Sky smiled brightly and began to retrace her steps back to where they had slept. "Oh, nothing, nothing, it doesn't matter, we should get going..." As she passed the dog demon, he snatched her shirt collar and, unaware, she kept walking until the material jerked her back and she was dangling by his claw. He swung her up to look him in the face.

"What were you looking for?" She smiled disarmingly again.

"Nothing, really, nothing at all."

"What?" He growled menacingly. Her face set, and she looked stubborn.

"Nothing." Then he did something Sky would never have expected in a hundred years.

He poked/pinched her in the side lightly, and Sky jerked in his grasp, squeaking. And, then, he _smiled_. Not evilly, but as if he was enjoying himself. A little.

"Tell me." Pinch; squeak. "Tell me." Pinch; squeal. "Tell me." Pinch; giggles. "Tell me." Pinch; uncontrollable laughter.

Sky broke down in a fit of guffaws, cracking up over the slightest thought that drifted through her head. Sesshomaru had found her ticklish spot. When the giggle fit ended, she glared balefully at Sesshomaru.

"That was awfully mean." He raised two fingers menacingly in the air and pinched them together threateningly.

"Tell me or I'll do it again." Sky sighed, and gave up.

"I was only looking for my pouch. I noticed it was gone this morning, and... can you imagine the havoc one of these primitives could wreak with a car or a tri-laser gun?" Sesshomaru: -.-U. Sky saw the face, and made one of her own: O.O. "I mean, one of the people who would actually be foolish enough to try to figure out how something in my pouch works, or..." His face hadn't changed. "...I'll just shut up now, I think."

He stared at her a moment, annoyed, then gently placed her on her feet. Today was just full of surprises for Sky. For a second, she felt so wrong to not be crashing on her butt that she wondered if she should just fall over. Then she actually realized what the hell she had been thinking, and mentally slapped herself.

Sesshomaru had turned away from her, and just was standing there. 'Surely I didn't just his feelings that bad, did I?' She thought to herself, and went around to where she could see his face.

"Sesshomaru?" He was concentrating on something, breathing deeply.

"If your pouch is here, it's been washed clean of any scent. I can't smell it, anyway."

"Metal retains scents?" She asked. Sesshomaru: O.o.

"That thing was made out of metal?" Sky blinked at him.

"Almost everything in my time is made out of some sort of metal or another." She caught his look, and hurried to add, "Well, in my time anyway." Sesshomaru rolled his eyes mentally.

"Yes, metal retains scent." It was easier then explaining his super keen nose, he supposed (are anyone else's fingers cold? Mine are freezing...).

"Oh. I think my pouch may even still be in the river." There was every possibility of that, Sesshomaru agreed. It could be trapped under water, washed up on a bank somewhere, still floating, in the possession of a human... or a demon... that possibilities were endless. Okay, not endless, but certainly large in number. Sky smiled at him brightly. "Well, thanks for trying. We really have to hurry, though." She looked at the clock inside her sleeve. "I've been out for about two and a half hours, so... I suck at math. We have less then we had before, anyway. We can still make it, right? Be exactly on time?" The question was very earnest, with a hint of fear. He nodded calmly at her.

"Yes, we can still make it." Sky released a big sigh of relief. "We'll have to move fast though." 'Oh, shimatta!' Sky thought with an inner pout. 'More walking! Whatever happened to that dragon thing?' But she didn't say anything out loud. If walking would get them there on time, then walk she would. 'Just wish walking weren't so... _boring_.'

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_W.W.- Yeah, she did just think that, right? Right. Wish granted. -Evil laughter-_

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They had been walking in relative silence for a while. About an hour, really. I say relative because Sky had started at least five conversations, or had at least tried to, and a few times, when Sesshomaru had kept his continuous silence, she had continued the conversation with herself.

"It's weird growing up on a S.S., Sesshomaru. It's like being in a cage. That's why whenever I had a chance, I went to a planet, and love them so much."

"S.S.?" He asked. Sky brightened because he actually said something.

"S.S. means Space Station. That's what the houses in space are called." They were rounding a hill as Sky was trying to get him to talk more when they were suddenly stopped...

By the sight of a village torn to smithereens.

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_W.W.- Hey. Me again (who else would it be?). I kinda got tired about focusing on Sky and Sesshomaru (I know, it sounds like treason to say that I got a little bored when we're talking about SESSHOMARU, one of the hottest demons on the face of the planet), so I'm thinking of a scene change. Let's see where we should go... If anyone else has an idea for a little side scene, I'm up to hearing it!_

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Sky's mom looked out the S.S.'s porthole-type window, and sighed. She was worried about her daughter. She had been gone for quite some time now, and not a single word. The communications cranchite had remained blank. Suddenly, it snapped on with a welcome _breep-beep-breep_ noise. The alien woman rushed over to the screen... only to find that it was not her daughter who was looking back at her.

"Salutations, Mrs. Pyre. This is Captain Thomas West, leader of the archeological expedition on planet Earth. I'm calling to request the whereabouts of your daughter. She disappeared not that long ago, about a week, I believe. If you have any information on where she is, kindly report it to the Space Federation, and tell her that she is fired. Thank you."

Sky's mom was already on her way to the nearest OutCraft station. Her baby was missing, and she would move mountains (literally), heaven and hell (figuratively) to find her. On her way, she called Sky's dad, and told him the news. He repeated her actions almost verbatim, heading toward the nearest OutCraft station, and calling his oldest son. So the list went on, until even the younger brother was on his way to Earth.

Poor Earth. It's about to get invaded by some of the weirdest people in the galaxy.

Excluding, of course, myself.

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Sky looked at the blown apart village with big, wondering eyes.

"What exists in this era that could actually do this much damage?" She murmured. Sesshomaru shrugged.

"Demons." And began walking down toward the smoldering ruins. Sky noticed that he was moving again with an abrupt start, and trotted until she was next to him. Her eyes remained huge as they walked through the rubble, on the clearest part, which would have been the village's main street had it not been torn apart.

Sesshomaru sniffed the air for possible danger. A demon had done this destruction, all right, but he had not been alone. Another rogue (human) bandit group led by a demon, he surmised. They were long gone, though, the wind blowing away most of the lingering scent. Probably after valuables.

Sky studied the ruins with all the concentration of a serious student cramming for her finals. Here and there, a hand lay among the burnt wood, or a leg, and once in a while a head. Never a whole body. Whatever had blown apart the huts had also taken care of the people.

A thin wail traveled through the air to reach our main characters ears. Sky's head jerked up, and she went dashing through the piles of ashes to reach the source of the noise. Sighing, Sesshomaru followed her.

The mostly alien woman reached the source of the wail first, digging rapidly, but carefully, through the burned boards. A tiny face looked up at her, and grinned, the tears on its cheeks quickly drying. It cooed at her, and a universal goofy smile formed on Sky's face.

That one a lot of people get when they lay eyes on a newborn.

The only thing different about this newborn... is that it had horns. And it's ears were pointy. The horns were small, very soft nubs still, but horns all the same. Leaning down, Sky picked the baby up, and it giggled in delight as she tickled its belly.

"Sesshomaru!" She called, though there was no need. By this time he had caught up to her.

"You can't keep it." Was the first thing out of his mouth. Sky pouted.

"That's not up to you, and that's not fair. We can't very well just leave it here, put it back now that it knows it was found and could have been rescued. Besides, it's so well tempered, I'm sure it will be no problem at all... except the one about feeding it. Now that I don't have my pouch, I don't know where we're going to get food."

"I lived just fine before you came along with your pouch, and I think we can manage to get along as well without it." She gave him a hard stare.

"Are you going to be able to find baby food, Mr. High and Mighty Sesshomaru? I at least had some in my pouch." He looked at her in a weird, questioning way, and she flushed hotly. "No, I did not have a baby! But you have to be prepared for anything when taming a recently recovered planet, it said so in my job contract. 'Note: If injury to person occurs because of said person's lack of preparedness, afore mentioned injury is not the fault of facility, but fault of person for not being aware of the risks of taking this job.' Basically, if something goes wrong, it's your own damn fault, and we're not paying for it, _you_ are. But back to the original statement. Will you be able to find baby food, Sesshomaru?"

"Why should I bother when the choice isn't up to me?"

"_We_ decide, not _you_. And you should bother out of the goodness of your heart." Apparently, this woman hadn't gotten the memo about Sesshomaru.

"I decide no. Now leave it."

"I decide yes, so it comes with us." They stood nose to nose in the middle of the burnt up wasteland, the baby between them. For a minute, neither backed down.

The baby itself decided, cooing, then throwing itself out of Sky's arms with unnatural force... to land safely on Sesshomaru's fluffy tail. It buried it's face in the soft fur, making soft noises of contentment. It was latched so tightly on that when Sesshomaru moved (his hands cradled beneath the newborn in case he fell) that the baby merely swayed with the movement, but did not fall off. Sky looked from the baby to Sesshomaru and grinned.

"Two against one, you lose." He snarled silently, turned on his heel and started to walk away. The baby didn't let go, laughing with pure delight as he swung freely. Sky caught up with the pair, a smug smile on her face.

"What should we call it?" She asked him.

"Call him anything you like. First house we see, he's going to be on that doorstep." Sky yanked on his arm, stopping him, and just stared at him a moment, furious to the point where she couldn't speak. Then she got over it.

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Think it over. You don't come from this time."

"He won't stick out that bad in mine anyway. I live with sentient blobs!"

"You don't know how to raise a kid."

"Says you."

"He might still have family somewhere." That stopped her.

"Oh. Yeah."

"It's not like he's just a stray pet."

"But that doesn't mean we can _leave _him! At least, not until we meet someone who's related to him. There. That's the deal. We meet someone who claims him as theirs, and I'll give him up. Until then, you have to help me take care of him. Deal?" The demon just kept walking, and Sky took that as a yes. "Deal." She answered for him.

They were exiting the ruins the next time she said something.

"Hey, Sesshomaru. All this... _carnage_ doesn't bother you?"

"No. It's a fairly common sight." He looked askance at her. "It doesn't effect you either, it would appear." Sky shrugged.

"I'm used to dead bodies. I spent a lot of time with Desan before I got my own job."

"Desan?" The woman didn't hear the underlying bristle in his tone.

"My brother, the mortician? Well, he's a coroner, too, but mostly a mortician. So death doesn't bother me. Even violent death. I mean, once you've seen the aftermath of a shattered hull, you're kinda desensitized. One day a meteor crashed into a OutCraft who's defenses were down - mutiny - and the crew was sucked into the void of space before the hull could regrow itself. Their skulls all imploded, and their guts burst, went flying through the air, a couple people were torn apart because they tried to grab something to avoid being sucked out. The pictures were all over as a warning about mutiny. They're still hung in every legal 'Craft in the system." Sesshomaru was just staring at her. "What?" He looked away.

"You're insane," he said, and the baby giggled. Sky huffed.

"Its just the facts of what happened. It doesn't make me insane. And no one asked you, Aatu." Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at her.

"Aatu?"

"Well, you said I can call him anything I liked, so I named him Aatu. I just didn't get around to telling him that." She tickled the baby under his chin. "How about that? Aatu sound good to you too?" The baby smiled at her. "Then it's settled. Nice to meet you, Aatu." She smiled back at him. "Now we just need a last name for you. Aatu Pyre? Well, it sounds well enough, but 'noble wolf' and 'death fire' don't go too well with each other... what do you think, Sesshomaru?"

"I think if you name it, you're going to get too attached, and won't want to give him up when his real parents come to claim him." She rolled her eyes at him.

"I can't just call him 'That one kid'. I got it! Aatu Zareb! Noble Wolf Protector. Its perfect." Sesshomaru sighed. He might as well try to reason with a rock. He might even get further if he did. "Are you going to protect me, Aatu? Yes you are, yes you are... Aw, that was so cute!" He had blown a spit bubble. If Sesshomaru was more given to showing his emotions, right then he would have had a sweat-drop.

"Do you keep a little list of names in your head on the off chance you'll find some abandoned baby?" He asked sarcastically. She frowned at him.

"No. Well, not for that reason. I just like names. The ones that I gave him were Old Earth... I mean, Future Earth, names. Aatu is Hebrew. Zareb is African."

"You. Are. Weird."

"You just feel like being mean today, don't you? Fine then. I'll just take Aatu, and talk to him. You can walk over there all by your lonely self." Gently she pulled the baby off of Sesshomaru's tail, and though he (the baby) pouted, Sky soon had him giggling and cooing again, making funny faces and tickling him.

Sesshomaru was watching them, using too much of his attention to make sure Sky didn't notice him watching them, and not enough to his surroundings, so maybe that's why what happened next happened.

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"Aditya!" A woman's voice called from inside the crowded OutCraft.

"Maliha!" A man's booming voice returned. A mountain of a man pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing next to a delicate looking woman. They hugged, and then the woman asked,

"Have you seen Desan? A'Dyn?" The big man shook his head.

"Not yet. I've been looking for them, though. They said they'd catch this flight..." An amused look crept into his wife's eyes.

"If they're on the same Craft, we'll be able to hear them long before we see them." At that moment, shouts erupted from the other end of the Craft. Cheering soon followed.

"Go on! Beat his brains out!"

"Come on, big guy, you can beat this loser!" Similar cheers pulled them toward the source, and, as they had suspected, the two young men were there, hands interlocking, straining to make the other one give in first.

"Desan! A'Dyn! You will stop this at once!" Maliha snapped sternly. The boys' response was so immediate, that when they let go they actually crashed head on into each other. Getting up, they stood uncomfortably under the tiny woman's gaze, feeling not even an inch tall as she scolded them. When she was done, she hugged each of them. "It's been too long since I've seen my boys." Her husband pulled them all into one big hug, laughing. The spectators left, the fight over, now just this mushy reunion going on. Gag.

"Alright, you big brute, you can let us go now," Maliha chuckled, and Aditya put them all down. "They're definitely your boys," she remarked, looking at their huge bone structure upon which muscles were already starting to bulk them up. Her husband grinned.

"Chips off the old block, they are." A'Dyn rolled his eyes.

"Stop that, will you? What's the word on the brat?" Desan hit him in the back of his head.

"You can't call her that, she's older then you. You are the brat... brat." He ducked as his younger brother took a swing at him. Despite all their fighting, the brothers really did care for each other. They just had more fun beating the crap out of each other then showing it.

"She's still missing, if that's what you mean. I talked more information out of that West guy. What an asshole. Tried insulting my baby. Hmph. Anyway, she disappeared while she was out on the land she was assigned to excavate." Maliha sighed, and looked sadly at Aditya. "How many times did I tell her not to take this job? I told her it would be dangerous! And now she's gone..." Aditya hugged her, trying to sooth her.

"I'm sure she's just fine. Sky's a smart girl, she'll be alright. We'll find her, and bring her home, where you can try to baby her again, and she'll just be her normal, risk-taking self." The big guy wasn't much at comforting. Maliha punched him, lightly enough for her, but it knocked the breath out of him. "I mean, we'll find her, and she'll be so happy to be home, she won't ever want to leave again."

"Dad's right. Sort of. She'll be alright, mom. Tougher then Atsula Stone, she is." Desan said, in the rough, clipped accent he used when talking to the people on the planet he currently lived on. You know, when you live in a certain place you tend to talk like everyone else there. Yep.

"Besides, me and her still have to decide who's the better fighter." A'Dyn puffed out his chest. "I know I'll win this time."

"When she's beaten you the last twenty five? Not a chance... brat." Desan grinned as his younger brother growled at him.

"Now, boys, stop it. We all have to work together to find your sister."

"Yes, ma'am." They said in unison, and ceased their fighting. Well, they stopped as much as they could.

Which wasn't very much.

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Sky knew Sesshomaru was watching her. She just couldn't decide if this was a good or bad thing. When she was about to say something more, she found she couldn't move.

And, to his surprise, neither could Sesshomaru.

"S-s-ses-sho-sho-mar-u?" Sky forced herself to say, wishing she could look and see if he was even still there. In her arms, Aatu was having a hard time even breathing. The pressure in this area was immense. 'What's going on?' She wondered wildly. She wished desperately that Sesshomaru was next to her.

The dog demon had a little more of an idea what was going on, and was surprised that she could talk at all. They had walked into a trap, set up by bandits, he presumed. Certain charms could be bought - or stolen - that caused the area inside a circle to become almost like a stone, pressing down on them so hard that they couldn't move. The people who could make this charm were few and far between, so the charms were much prized. Observing the area he did have access to visually, which, at this time, was not able to see Sky, but was able to see the other side of the circle.

A smirking demon dropped from a nearby tree.

"Looky, looky, what do I see? Two ripe pigeons caught by me." The counter charm hung about his neck, and he could move freely within the circle because of it.

'He did not just rhyme, did he? That's so... tacky.' Sky thought to herself. Her arms were cramping with the need to shift them, and she grimaced in her mind at the warning pain. "T-t-ac-k-y," she said with as much disgust as she could fit into her voice. He snarled and walked toward her.

"What did you say, wench?" She forced her eyes to glare as much as she could, and said it again.

"T-ack-y." Amazed, she found it was easier this time. "T-try-leen-thet." She said. It was a word that did not belong to any language but the one in the myths her father had told her. '_If you're ever in too much trouble, Sky-Sky_,' he had said, his big face warm with love as he had held her and told her about the legends on one of his infrequent stops home, '_You must say the magic word of Queen Bonifery. The dead will help you. But say it too much, and they will come to disregard it." _She had giggled then, and tugged on his bushy beard. Later in the day, he had spelled out the word, so that she would know it, but refused to say it aloud. '_Remember, you can't say it too much, and only if you're sure that you need their help._' He had made her promise, and she had given it freely.

'Well, now's as good a time as any,' she thought, and, only half believing it would work, she said the magic word of Queen Bonifery. "T-try-leen-thet." She watched the man get closer, heart falling a little as nothing seemed to happen.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, something silvery flickered.


	16. Invasion Earth

**_Ch.16: Invasion, Earth_**

As Sky watched, a silvery, nearly transparent gentleman walked into view. He bowed to her.

'You called, my lady Pyre?' The voice was cultured, and rang like a deep bell inside her head. She knew, then, that he wasn't really speaking, merely talking to her in her mind.

'Indeed I did, good sir,' she answered, in the same way of speaking. It was always important to be polite to the dead, she remembered. 'May I inquire as to just how you came about knowing my name, and to what yours may be?' The ghost grinned. The bandit seemed to be moving extraordinarily slow, and still had yet to come close enough to Sky to touch her.

'Everyone knows of your family, my lady. We of the dead pass quite freely through time. Some of us have even had long talks with those of your blood. I was coming here to visit a good friend of mine, when I heard your call. My name would be Sir Marcus Gaiman. Now, if I am not mistaken, you would be needing of my help?'

'That I would be, Sir Gaiman. My friends and I appear to be in some danger, and I find to my shame that I am quite unable to move to save them. I would appreciate it most greatly if you were to help me either be able to move, or to dispose of this rude man before me?'

'Him?' Sir Gaiman asked, pointing to the slow moving bandit.

'The very one.' Sky agreed. The ghost walked over to the demon, and stepped... _inside_ him. There was a moment of pure shock on the man's face, as if someone had just emptied a very large bucket of ice down his pants. Then, he seemed to speed back up, and, with the shocked expression still on his face, he turned sharply on his heel, and walked away from Sky, out of her sight. Soon, she found to her delight, that she could move.

Sesshomaru had heard the exchange, and seen the murderous light in the demon bandit's eyes as he had walked toward Sky. Then the demon had passed from his sight, and Sesshomaru struggled against the charm to move. 'SKY!' He yelled in his mind, straining. Then the demon walked into his line of vision again, and toward the place where Sesshomaru had assumed the charm to be. He was still struggling when the charm released its hold from him, and he went crashing to earth near Sky. She knelt beside him and asked worriedly,

"Are you okay, Sesshomaru?" He looked at her earnestly concerned face, and got gracefully to his feet, his pride more bruised then his body.

"Fine." He answered shortly, and looked around for the demon bandit...

To find the demon to be doing a very odd dance at the edge of the former circle. He was hopping about on one foot, both hands raised in the air, tongue sticking out at irregular times as he span in an ungainly little twirl. Sky started laughing with delight. Sesshomaru snarled to hide his smile.

"I do believe the poor man has learned his lesson, Sir Gaiman." She called. "Thank you ever so much for your help." The bandit dropped to the ground in a heap, and Sesshomaru felt the faintest breeze pass him by. Sky shot a look at the dog demon, and blushed. "I know. Thank you for everything. I hope your rest continues on well, until and after next we meet." She appeared regain her sanity, then spun around and said, "Wait! May I ask one more thing of you, Sir Gaiman? Would you happen to know if the little one here has any family left?" She acted as if she was listening carefully. Then her face brightened. "Thanks again! I shall stop bothering you now. Good day, sir!"

"Who the hell were you talking to?" Sky turned to face him, and for a split second he saw that instead of being silver streaked with black, like usual, they had reversed, and become black streaked with silver. Then they were normal, and he wondered whether he had really seen it. She grinned at him, making the eye thing seem even more like a hallucination.

"I was talking to Sir Gaiman, who I believe from his speech and dress was a knight in the Middle Ages on this planet." She saw the skeptical look on his face and sighed. "How come so few believe the dead still live?" the woman thought a moment. "Well, the rare, occasional dead. Dunno what happens to the rest of them..." Aatu once again launched himself from the thinking Sky's arms, and landed on the fluffy softness of Sesshomaru's tail. The dog demon growled. Was everyone in this story going to have an obsession over his tail?

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_W.W.- Hey, not everyone! Just a baby and an alien! And... Well, there may be more, I don't know, but currently, ITS JUST A BABY AND AN ALIEN! So there. Okay, and me, but I'm not in the story so I don't count._

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"By the way, Sesshomaru," Sky said after the baby was settled comfortably. "The ghost, Sir Gaiman, told me that Aatu has NO family left. That means he's ours." A bolt of darkness shot across her face. "Well, mine. He'll have a happy life with me, anyway, if I ever get back to my time." Sky looked straight ahead, at the long road unfolding before them. Unexpectedly, she grinned. "First things first, though. Got to rescue Mara Rose and Rin! No telling what the crazy wanna-be villain will do to them." They had been walking for a while in silence when Sesshomaru quietly asked a question.

"What if you don't get back to your time?" Sky, who had been looking around her with enthusiasm, stopped, and chewed on her lip as she thought.

"I don't know. Wander around this time for the rest of my life, I guess. Try to find my pouch. Raise Aatu, maybe settle in some village around here. Or maybe I'll try to raise him on the other side of the Well. But, with horns, I suspect that he'll be a little out of place there." She sighed. "The most likely scenario would be me settling down for a while to raise him, then taking him adventuring with me. I just know I couldn't be in one spot for too long. It would get boring. If he takes too long to grow up, then I guess I'll just journey with him as he is." There was a pause. Sesshomaru nodded, and looked before him once more. Reluctantly, Sky returned to watching the country side. Finally, she couldn't stand the silence. "What are you going to do once we rescue Rin and Mara Rose?"

"I will continue my wanderings." 'Because I'm not really looking for anything.' He replied. Sky grinned with joy.

"Hey! If I can't go home, can I wander with you? I mean, it'd be more entertaining then walking around alone, besides Aatu, who can't even talk. And with Mara Rose around, you'll need some protection..." She teased.

"If you must..." He sighed. Apparently he was in the habit of collecting humans. Sky laughed at him, and looked at the road with a happier frame of mind.

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Maliha set foot on Earth, and immediately didn't like it. "How could Sky choose this dust ball over the S.S.? It was so much comfier there, there was air conditioning, it wasn't so dry, there were trees in the biosphere..." Aditya smiled at his wife's reaction, but wisely said nothing, following meekly as the little woman stormed up to the Research Center. Bursting in through the doors, she demanded of the room at large,

"WHERE. IS. MY. DAUGHTER." The few people that were there, but not the robot servants, turned and stared at the woman who had forgotten her issue with manners in her worry over said daughter.

"Um... can I help you, ma'am?" The receptionist - a human, purely - said timidly from behind the counter.

"You can tell me where my daughter, Anata Sky Pyre, is. Now." The human woman wondered distractedly, 'How did this alien lady get on Earth?' but quickly searched her data banks for information.

"Anata Sky Pyre, assigned to section eighteen, disappeared a week or so ago. Captain West should have already informed you?"

"That incompetent man already told me he had lost my baby, yes. Now, if you do not want this building demolished before your eyes, you will tell me what's being done to find her, and where she was last known to be!" Maliha shouted. Aditya placed a gently restraining hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Maliha, calm yourself..." She whipped around to face him, Orchilum skirts twirling, a sharp retort ready on her tongue, when she saw the look on his face, and calmed. She patted his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Aditya. I'm just worried. Where could she have gone? What if she fell into a dormant volcano? What if she discovered a cave full of radiation? What if–"

"Ahem," the receptionist interrupted cautiously. "Miss Pyre is not being searched for, by express command of Captain West. The last place she was seen was heading out to her work area."

"NOT BEING SEARCHED FOR!" Maliha shouted, all calm gone. "WHERE'S WEST!"

"Captain West..." The human woman protested weakly.

"WHERE IS HE! NOW!" She gripped the metal desk tightly, crumbling it into dust and tiny metal shavings beneath her dainty hands.

"His tent, out on the site! The shuttle doesn't come back for another six hours!" The poor woman squeaked out. Before his wife could do any more serious damage to the place, or any more mental damage to the poor woman, Aditya pulled her away from the counter and held Maliha firmly behind his back. She hung there in his hands, like a pouting and very angry doll.

"Which direction would the site be?" When the woman seemed hesitant to answer, Aditya leaned forward and gave his very best charming smile. "Honestly, do you want to be responsible for the destruction of this building? Or do you want to be known for having saved it? If you would prefer the latter goal, I suggest you help me get her out of the building." The woman glanced about her, then turned her attention back to the mountain of a man.

"He's to the north. Just keep following the shuttle tracks." She even managed a small smile as the four left, the Mountain Man carrying the Evil Little Woman, the slightly small Mountain Boys following, still silent.

They began walked, following the tube-tracks north, to the sites. As they walked, they saw...

A monkey with an accordion? It ran past them, playing it's horrible music (which sounded vaguely like 'Happy Birthday') and disappeared into the horizon.

Desan turned to his father.

"Did you see a monkey... with an accordion?" Aditya looked after the monkey, and considered. He nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes. I did. I wonder why?" Maliha patted her husband's arm.

"Don't worry. It's not the heat. The author's just bored, and got a card today, because he birthday was Monday (Feb. 13th)."

"Ah," A'Dyn said, as if he were wise. "I see. She's sixteen now, isn't she?"

W.W. popped up out of the ground, and said, "What did I tell you people about talking about me?" She lifted up her keyboard, which became a really old (and heavy) typewriter. They all laughed at her.

"We're extremely strong alien/humans. A typewriter, even a heavy one, can't hurt us," A'Dyn bragged. Becoming angry, W.W. launched the typewriter at him. It magically became even heavier, and flew even harder, striking him in the gut. A'Dyn made a "Urk" noise, and fell over. Another typewriter appeared near the authoress, this one floating and on fire. She looked at the people she was writing about.

"Now, what did I tell you people about talking me into the story? Just because an accordion playing monkey runs past you is no reason to break the rules. Are we clear?" Desan raised his hand. "Yes, Desan?"

"If two accordion playing monkeys and a talking cheese wedge run past us, can we break the rules?" W.W. blinked.

"Er... I suppose... maybe.. Well, I promise that if that happens, I won't throw typewriters at you. Okay?" They all nodded, and W.W. disappeared back into the ground, taking the flaming and otherwise typewriters with her. The family looked at each other, shrugged, and continued walking. Living as they did, strange, odd, and painful things happened everyday. Like masses of gelatin falling from the sky, or books growing legs, gaining heavy artillery, and talking over a world or two.

All part of the future universe.


	17. Rose Glasses and Purple Melons

_**Ch: 17**_

_**Rose Glasses and Purple Melons**_

The day was wearing to it's close, and Sesshomaru, Aatu, and Sky began looking for a place to spend the night.

"Another night sleeping on the dirt. How wonderful," Sky said sarcastically. "I wish I hadn't lost my pouch..." Sesshomaru did not respond, Aatu clinging to his tail, already asleep. The dog demon realized with a disgusted face that the baby was drooling. Picking it up, he plopped Aatu into Sky's arms unexpectedly, and she had to scramble to avoid dropping him. "Sesshomaru!"

"You wanted to keep him," was all he said. When he turned away, a clod of dirt landed in his hair. Sky was whistling innocently when he looked back. Growling, he ignored it. Something a lot bigger then a clod of dirt hit him in the back next.

Sky set down the sleeping Aatu in a very comfy looking bush. He giggled in his sleep as a leaf tickled his nose, grabbing a branch. Then Sky went into attack mode...

And tackled Sesshomaru around the waist from behind. Taken by surprise, they both crashed to the ground. The dog demon managed to twist around in her grip and land on his back rather then his face. He snarled at Sky, and realized... that she was smiling.

She wasn't mad at him at all.

"This has been so much fun. Even though Mara Rose and Rin got kidnaped, and my pouch is missing, this has been a lot of fun. And you, Sesshomaru, are a great guy. Whether you admit it or not." She smiled at him and his eye twitched.

"What has brought this about?" Sky looked thoughtful but didn't move, keeping him pinned.

"Nothing. I just thought it would cheer you up to know that. You always look so grumpy. Even Sir Gaiman knew you were a great guy. A bit rough, but not bad." His bafflement disguised as disgust became suspicion.

"What do you want?" He asked. She got off him and offered him a hand.

"Nothing, like I said. I just thought you'd like to know." He ignored her hand and stood with dignity. Now her eye twitched, though she was still smiling. It made a disturbing picture. "You wanna go, punk, huh? You wanna go?" Sesshomaru just stared at her as she started to walk agitatedly around him, repeating "You wanna go?" With a couple "huh"s and "Punk"s thrown in. Then...

She attacked him again, darting up and pulling his hair. There was no reaction. She tried a couple more times, but he didn't do anything. Finally she stopped, panting, and frowned at him.

"You're no fun." She went to go get Aatu out of the bush, but didn't get beyond a single step. Sesshomaru took his own turn attacking then.

They wrestled in the clearing, Sesshomaru snarling playfully (though it sounded dead serious and flipping scary), and Sky laughing. Their noise woke Aatu up, and for the first time, he started crying. The pair stopped their game immediately. Sky jumped up and ran over to Aatu, scooping him up in her arms and cooing.

"Oh, shush, Noble Wolf, shh, shh... it's okay, what's wrong? Aw, you're hungry, is that it? Yes, yes, I know, hold on a minute, shh..." She looked at Sesshomaru and hid a smile; there was a leaf in his hair and a smudge of dirt above his eye. "Um, Sesshomaru, do you have any idea of where to get food for Aatu?" The dog demon rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you know? You wanted to bring it."

"We have a deal. Silence is acquiescence, as they say. Lucky, lucky you, you get to help me take care of this pretty little boy. So; where do we find food?" At first he did nothing, eyes moving around the clearing. Then, he unleashed his poison whip and struck the ground. Dirt and roots flew up into the air, and came crashing back down. Sky put up an arm to keep the sand and rocks out of her and Aatu's face. When she looked up, Sesshomaru had a small smirk on his face.

"Do you suppose it likes melons?" (JSYK, I have no idea if they have melons in Japan, but now they do, because I said so, and YES, it does work like that) Bending down, he picked up a small purple sphere and held it out to her. "Klenter melon. Very rare." Two or three more littered the ground, but they were all on Sesshomaru's side of the rapidly darkening clearing. Sky raised an eyebrow.

"Did you have to be so showy?"

"What? I, Lord Sesshomaru, dig through the dirt? I'll pass." He waved it at her. "Are you going to take it or not?" Sky stepped forward so that she was within reach of the melon.

"Of course I am. Aatu's hungry, and if you say it's safe..." She reached out to take it–

And Sesshomaru snatched it away.

Sky stared at the dog demon, bewildered. What had gotten into the guy? He wasn't his usual somber, assassin, I'm-going-to-kill-you-and-enjoy-doing-it attitude. It was almost like the demon was high

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_W.W. - Any of you know potheads? I do. My best friend (one of them) is a pothead, while two others have tried it. Well, I guess I should say that she was a pothead. She's given up smoking herb. Her reasons are so... pure, too. Not really like her. But it's so cute... Lol Anyway, the point of this was to say, I love potheads, as long as they're not having a bad high. Even then, it's amusing... as long as the pothead doesn't have sharp objects around..._

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or something. He smiled at her; a smile dripping with EVIL!

"What are you gonna give me in exchange for this lovely melon? Like I said, it's rare." (Now stop thinking bad, people!) Sky didn't know what was going on, but she knew this game. She tossed her head and walked away.

"Maybe I don't want your stupid melons. What about that? What are you going to do now?" But Sesshomaru wasn't buying.

"Of course you want the melons. You want to feed it, don't you?" She turned and marched back, getting right in his face.

"What do you want for the melons, Mr. Sesshomaru?" He scowled at her for putting the ball in his court. Then he grinned.

"What are you willing to pay?"

"I'll give you a deal." This was the end of the whole pre-game; now it was going into the second quarter. "We'll play rock-paper-scissors. Two out of three. I win, I get the melons. Free. You win..." She thought a minute, then sighed and made the only bet she could at the moment. Reluctantly, she continued, "and I'll give you one thing of your choosing in exchange. It'll be an IOU, or something, okay?" Sesshomaru nodded, and Sky shifted Aatu to one arm, sticking the other out in front of her. Sesshomaru did the same, minus the baby, instead shifting a melon. "One... two... three!" The alien had paper, and the demon threw rock. "Aha! Now you count."

"One... two... three!" This time Sesshomaru won, with scissors. "Do you like paper, or something?" The last count they did together.

"One! Two! Three!" And it went to Sesshomaru again; rock beats scissors. He smiled evilly (but he's so hot when he smiles...). "I win." He held out the melon to her, and she took it resentfully.

"Thanks. What do you want?" 'If he says a kiss, that would be so cliche... But so sweet...' He looked at her.

"I'll think about it." The demon said ambiguously. Sky exploded.

"WHAT! THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER AND YOU KNOW IT, SESSHOMARU!" He just grinned at her and stooped to collect the rest of the melons.

Using her hands, Sky broke the first one in half, then split that half right down the middle, pretending it was Sesshomaru's head. It made her smile, but she knew she didn't really want to break up Sesshomaru's head. It was just too pretty(lol). The scent was heavenly; rain and tropical flowers, with a sweet, light tang to it. The alien woman wished for a knife to cut the melon with , then scooped out a small bite with her fingers, and held it in front of Aatu's mouth. The baby boy sniffed it, mouthed it a little, then ate it with joy. He cooed adorably in happiness.

"He likes it!" Sky said triumphantly. Then, curious, she tried it herself.

A small explosion of fruit filled her mouth, tangy and enticing. The fruit itself was incredibly light. Delicious. "I can see why..." The rest of the melon disappeared between the two of them. Once Aatu was full, he fell back asleep, a small ring of juice around his mouth. Wiping it off with her sleeve, Sky smiled at the sleeping face. He was so adorable!

"We're getting a very early start, so you should get some sleep," Sesshomaru said briskly from behind her, making her jump. Then she sighed.

"But I don't want to sleep on the ground..." She eyed the trees. "Sesshomaru, which tree is the best to sleep in?" The dog demon gave her a look.

"You want to sleep in a tree?"

"Why not? You do it. Inuyasha did too. Neither of you seem to wake up as sore as I do when I sleep on the ground. So, which tree is best?" Sesshomaru pointed to a tree with no branches close to the ground, and was almost a bush twenty feet up.

"Don't do one of those. Ever. Those 'branches' at the top are not really branches, just a massive wad of poisonous vines. Now, a tree like this one..." It also had no branches close to the ground; in fact, the first one was fifty feet up. The branches were broad, and spread apart, with plenty of leaves. "...is perfect for sleeping in. You just have to get up there." Sky was already shinning up the three, feet bare, fingers and toes digging into the cracks in the bark. She had placed Aatu behind her neck, and, still sleeping, he had grasped the material of her shirt with all the strength of a baby monkey (I.E. - plenty enough to hold on and not fall. If he hadn't been doing the same thing to Sesshomaru's tail all day, Sky would never have tried it). Sesshomaru

watched her go.

Soon she had reached the first branch, and hoisted herself up.

"Sesshomaru! It smells good up here!" She yelled back down to him. There was a flash of light.

"You don't have to yell, I'm right here." Sky shrieked and jumped again. The voice was right beside her. Arms flailing wildly, she scrambled to regain her balance, and glared at the too-innocent looking Sesshomaru.

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_W.W. - Hah. Sesshomaru. Innocent. Yeah... _

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"That was so... _mean._ I'm moving to a different branch." She was as good as her word; Sky settled on the next branch up. Shifting Aatu around to the front, she held him tight as she tried to get comfortable.

Thankfully, this wasn't hard. The junction between limb and trunk was gentle, at a comfortable angle, the bark up here was smooth, and the branch was as wide as a ordinary twin bed. Soon Sky was asleep.

She didn't notice Sesshomaru on the branch directly behind hers. Once he heard her breathing even out, he slipped over to hers and lifted her head, placing his tail behind it. He was glad that it was long enough to reach around the trunk and still be comfortable. The dog demon went back over to his limb, and watched the heavens turn magnificently above him, twirling, whirling, the dark sparkling blanket wrapped around the world. Eventually he slept too.

111111111I would like to take this scene change to thank all my reviewers. Cry Thank you! Thank you! You've all been so kind! cough back to our regularly scheduled scene break11111

Sky woke slowly, comfortable and warm. It was still dark, and she didn't feel like moving; the little body curled up on her chest was very comforting. It dawned on her eventually that she was not at home in her own bed, with her own fluffy pillow, and one of her many friend's random kids passed out on her. Instead, she was lying on a branch with a fluffy pillow, and a strange baby was sleeping on her chest.

Well, she had thought it was sleeping. When she looked down, she saw two glowing white eyes staring back at her, fanged mouth gleaming beneath them. Two pale horns reflected the moonlight. And she remembered.

"Aatu! Did you wake me up?" The baby giggled at her. She smiled back. "You're so cute! Is it time to go already?" She felt behind her head, touching the pillow, curious. It felt so familiar, yet not at all like hers back in her own time. It was softer and squishier... "Sesshomaru's tail!" She exclaimed in surprise. Then she squealed and hugged it. She just couldn't help herself; it was so soft!

Sesshomaru was woken up by her loudness, snapping awake, immediately sitting up, and just as quickly laying back, head pounding. There was a tug on his butt as Sky pulled on his tail, but he ignored it. There was a massive pain in his skull, like someone was driving a hundred knives into it, and his eyes were heavy and felt like they were filled with sand. He covered them. What had happened?

Random bits of yesterday popped into his head, and he was appalled. What could have caused him, Sesshomaru, Lord of the West, unfeeling inu youkai to the extreme, to do such things? Sesshomaru had always prided himself on his emotional control; for such a thing as yesterday to have happened was humiliating. Searching his memory, he realized what the cause was.

'The flowers...' In his head, he groaned. When Sky had tackled him, he had been pushed into a bush of bright blue flowers. And even though his face hadn't actually come into contact with the plants... their pollen must have gotten into his nose anyway. The bright blue flowers were part of a plant called Rose Glasses (-). If that pollen had gotten into his system...

Well, a little less emotional control was one of the least of the bad things that could have occurred. He could have decided that clothes were inhibitory to his breathing...

With a vicious jerk, he pulled his tail away from the other branch, sitting up as he did so. To his surprise, there was a woman and a baby on the other end.

"..." There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Um... Hi?" Sky said, clinging to the string of fluff. She looked around. "Is it just me, or does this seem familiar?" As a matter of fact, it did, but two things were very different. One, there was a baby. Two, instead of wearing her shoes, they were tied by their laces to a belt loop. Growling, Sesshomaru moved his tail over his branch, and plopped them down on the limb.

Well, Sky sat on the branch. Aatu did not relinquish his grip, and landed on the dog demon's chest, pulling the end of the tail with him. Thankfully the baby missed the deadly spikes on the lords armor. Sesshomaru looked down at him, disgust in his eyes, but the baby only cooed and grinned toothlessly at him.

"Should we get going, Sesshomaru? Or should we rock-paper-scissors over the right to sleep some more?" She yawned and grinned mischievously at him. He stood on the branch, face impassive.

"We go. Do you forget the reason we are travelling?" Sky flinched and her face became solemn.

"You're right. We should hurry; we lost time because of my stupidity yesterday by the river." She started toward Sesshomaru, to get to the trunk of the tree and climb down. But before she could touch the trunk, the dog demon snatched her up and leapt off the branch. They plummeted toward the ground like... a lot of rocks. Sky shrieked and clutched Sesshomaru, almost hitting her head against the spikes on his armor. Almost immediately though, to Sesshomaru's surprise, she began laughing. Reaching the ground, she disentangled herself, and punched him lightly - truly lightly - on the shoulder, still smiling.

"That was very mean. Can we do it again?" He looked at her, suspicious.

"Are you honestly insane enough to have enjoyed that?" The falling out of the tree part was enjoyable, but to Sesshomaru, not to have control over the fall would suck all the joy out of it.

"Well, yeah. And it doesn't make me insane. It's not like it was dangerous." Sesshomaru realized at that moment that this woman trusted him with her life; and not only hers, but that of the little infant she was so fond of. It made him pause, and even take a step away from her. Sky looked concerned. She reached out a hand. "Sesshomaru?" He ignored her hand and voice.

"Let's get going. We have no time to waste." He started walking briskly, so fast that Sky had to jog to keep up. She kept beside him as much as she could, sending concerned glances at him. After things had been going so good, how had it wound down to this dead end? He was radiating contempt. Was it for her?

No. It was for himself.

For Sesshomaru had looked and found a disturbing fact.

Not only did this woman trust her life to him; he trusted her with his as well. He, Sesshomaru, with all those fancy titles, acclaimed hater of humans, trusted this one completely.

Shit.

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Maliha had finally reacher the site. The remains of her sons and husband trudged wearily behind her. They were tired. But Maliha seemed possessed with energy, absolutely overflowing with it. Searching for the largest tent, she found it, and began marching determinedly toward it. The few people there saw her and her anger, and stayed well out of her way, not even bothering to question whom this regal but scary woman was.

She tore open the tent flap.

"WEST!" She roared into the enclosed space, shaking the tent poles. The captain shot out of his chair.

"What is the meaning of this? What the hell is going on?" He bellowed. Suddenly a tiny woman was two centimeters from his face, so close she could have bitten off his nose. But her proximity did nothing to quiet her voice. Just as loudly as before, she yelled,

"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?" West immediately sat down to get away from the noise. It was just bad luck for him that she followed. "WHERE?"

"WHO'S YOUR DAUGHTER?" The captain shouted back. Maliha, with a huge effort of will, didn't continue screaming, but retreated and sat in an opposing chair. Her eyes flashing with anger, she sniffed as her face contorted with disdain.

"You don't have to shout, you know. It's quite rude. But to your question. My daughter is Anata Sky Pyre. I–" The captain interrupted her with a sneer.

"Oh, yes. That one. She turned up missing a couple of days ago. Nothing I can do. Good–"

"Want to bet, West? How much do you want to bet on that?" Her voice was quiet and at least a 100 times more scary them when she had been yelling. West wilted.

"Uh, I, I mean, um, see–"

"What you are going to do, West, is very simple. You are going to allow me, my husband, and my sons full run of this compound. We are to be able to go, see, and get answers about anything we want. We're not interested in your real reason for being here," West's face paled considerably, but Maliha ignored it and continued, "so don't worry about that. I just want my daughter back. Once this is accomplished, we'll be gone. No mars on her employment record either. Do we have an understanding?" The mountain man entered the tent behind her, and put his hands on the little woman's shoulders. Soon the sons flanked them. West blinked.

"Are... those your sons... and husband?" Both boys cracked their knuckles with obvious menace. Maliha shrugged.

"They are. Do we understand each other?" He nodded weakly. "Say it, young man."

"I grant you, your husband, and your sons free rein around the compound, and to get any answers you want. I'll put out word immediately to my people." She lifted an eyebrow.

"And?"

"And... no black marks on her record."

"Good." Maliha nodded sharply, satisfied. She stood. "It's been nice meeting you, Captain." She turned and began to walk out, her husband and sons going first. West thought that that would be the end of it, he'd never have to see this frightful woman and her family again... then the woman turned around. "I look forward to seeing you again, West. I feel like a checkup sometime in the future might be necessary." He gulped and she exited the tent, with one last shot over her shoulder. "And don't let size fool you, West. Your real threat here is not my sons or my husband... it is I.." His head fell into his hands.

Damn, but that had been a scary woman.

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'Of _course_,' Sesshomaru thought bitterly. 'Nothing _ever_ goes as planned.'

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_W.W. - I just thought I'd leave you with that lovely hangnail... - I love my terminology... _


	18. Yet Another Abduction of Two

_**Ch: 18**_

_**Yet Another Abduction of Two**_

"Hey, Sesshomaru, can I leave you alone a minute? Can you stay out of trouble for that long?" Sky asked in a teasing voice. Even though Sesshomaru had not said a word since earlier this morning, and the sun had long been risen, giving him enough time to do so, she was still in a good mood. Sesshomaru, Aatu holding so tightly to his tail that he was hidden in the fluff, did not answer, still walking, but Sky saw the slight slowing in his pace and smiled. He would - at least - if not wait, not go far. "Thanks, Sesshomaru." She raced off into the bushes.

Hey, when you gotta go...

It was disturbing to Sesshomaru how much he felt the absence of her good-natured presence.

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_ Screeching noise _

_Inuyasha: Wait a second, hold up. Are you trying to tell me that the whole purpose of this entire story was to get Sesshomaru - Sesshomaru - to like the wench? _

_Kagome: Inuyasha, you are so completely dense. Can't you tell that the two are just meant for each other? sigh _

_ Inuyasha stares at Kagome in a weird mix of disgust, confusion, and surprise _

_Inuyasha: You mean you actually knew this? You knew this and didn't even say anything? You APPROVE! I knew you were stupid, but this..._

_Kagome: Inuyasha! Sit! Sit! Sit!_

_ Inuyasha crashes into the ground _

_W.W. - You don't know how hard I worked to keep them silent for this long..._

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It was as if a big chunk of... say his sword, had just gone missing in a heated battle when the tide had been about to turn against him. Like I said, disturbing.

'I refuse,' Sesshomaru thought randomly, not really knowing what he was refusing to, but knowing that it was a stupid refusal that he would end up breaking. He pushed that thought away too, and just trudged along the path, face set.

It was several minutes before he noticed the strangeness surrounding him.

Not a single bird called, nor leaf rustled. And Aatu, normally good tempered, had begun to whimper most alarmingly in the tail.

That last fact had just begun to register in the dog demon's head when the net was cast over him, and he found that for the second time in a very short period, he couldn't move. But this... This had a different feel to it then the bandit, a feeling emphasized when multiple people came streaming out of the trees surrounding the path, shouting triumphantly.

"It worked! The crone's charms worked! Our village is saved!" Sesshomaru was forced to stand impassively inside the net, limbs and face not working, as the people ran up to him, spitting, cursing, and having an all around good time. The only movement the net allowed him was the motion of breathing.

But none of this had a feeling of spiritual power, magic, or anything. He didn't know how it was binding him. The humans wore no charms, unlike the bandit, yet stepped on the net with no ill effects, so obviously it didn't effect humans. Perhaps it was something designed to only capture demons...

So how come it didn't feel like spiritual magic? There were no traces of purifying in this thing. As he wondered, the shouting, screaming, smelly, insulting band of people snatched him up and carried him away.

'Of _course_,' Sesshomaru thought bitterly. 'Nothing _ever_ goes as planned.'

His thoughts were then directed to Sky. Would they go after her next? Would they go after her, while she was alone, and he was trapped here, unable to save her?

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_Kagome: Weeping Oh, that's beautiful..._

_Inuyasha: Gag._

_Kagome: Still weeping Sit, sit, sit..._

_W.W. - Um... no comment._

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Sky had just finished her... urgent business... when she heard the shouting. A little curious, but with a lot of worry sprinkled in, she hurried toward where she had left Sesshomaru, following the clearly marked trail that she had left. Breaking out onto the path, the dog demon was nowhere to be seen. She looked both ways distractedly, then set out on the way that they had been headed, telling herself that she was stupid for worrying. This was Sesshomaru they were talking about, not just some little nobody. Surely nothing bad could happen to him.

But as she continued walking and found no trace of him, the worry grew, and she began to run. 'If he had continued walking quickly, of course he would have gotten farther then you when you're just walking normally. After all, you had to jog just to keep up with his pace earlier,' she rationalized, but it didn't calm her.

She knew for sure that something bad had happened when she came upon a part of the path were many feet had been... then the footsteps had sunk deeper into dirt, as if they had suddenly started carrying something rather heavy. Something the size and weight of a full grown dog demon. In a panic now, she fled down the path, running at a break neck pace. It was no surprise, really, when she ran into someone.

"You!" She gasped. The little boy she had run into smiled at her, a little confused.

"You who? I am me, but I have never met the me that you say I am supposed to be." He giggled at her, then ran off into the bushes. "Think I'm a good villain now, girl?" He called back, though his voice had changed, become female. "A day and a half is all you have now!" Sky took off after the boy, running head long through the trees. The thought was firmly implanted in her brain that the boy/woman, the one who had kidnaped Mara Rose and Rin, had also stolen Aatu... and Sesshomaru. But as she ran along, a tree limb stretched out and directly in front of her, crashing into her stomach. It was strong enough that though she dented it mightily, she did not break it.

"Whoa, there! You're chasing the wrong person! You're doing exactly what she wants you to do!" A muffled voice said from above her. The branch wrapped around the stunned girl's waist and lifted her up. "What do you think you're doing, following her?"

"She stole my friends!" Sky replied once she had enough air to do so. The tree shook.

"Well, in a way, but not the way you're thinking of. Your demon friends are in the exact opposite direction of the way you're going. She's a distraction."

"I don't mean to be rude, but I have no time to be talking to a tree. That bitch stole my friends, and I have to go after her!" The tree shook again.

"Are you listening to me? She's distracting you, while the people who did steal your demons are _that _way. And if you don't hurry up and go stop them, they are going to do something that I'm assuming, from the look of your soul, that they would regret very much." Sky was bewildered and now she was pissed.

"What the hell do you mean? My _soul_? You're speaking gibberish, and I have no time for this! And even if I did, why should I believe you?"

"Have you ever heard of a talking tree lying?"

"Actually, yes. I have." The tree, if it could have, would have blinked, taken aback.

"You have? Anyway, take a look for yourself if you don't believe me." The limb holding her was raised into the air, and she could see a small crowd moving swiftly away from her, carrying a very pale figure over their heads.

"Sesshomaru!" Sky breathed out, then started pummeling the tree branch. "Let me down! I have to go rescue him!" The tree did lower her, but not quite to the ground; not yet.

"Calm down. You'll reach them in plenty of time. And stick to the path; if there are lying talking trees about, the world is just not safe anymore." Then the tree set her down, and watched her go, shaking it's... canopy, I guess, would substitute for a head in this case. "Lying talking trees... what has this world come to..."

Sky raced off through the forest and back out onto the path, now on the right track.. It wouldn't occur to her until much later that perhaps she should have been surprised by being snatched up by a talking tree, but at the time it is quite understandable how she could have overlooked it.

Soon she reached the village where Sesshomaru had been taken. Standing on a hill before it, she could see his pale, unmoving form in the very center of the town... roped to a stone stake and surrounded by very dry wood.

'If these people were strong enough to capture Sesshomaru, how am I going to rescue him?' She wondered, now becoming calm like the tree had suggested. A plan suggested itself to her, and she smiled. It was simple, it was straightforward... and it rather suited her personality, too. In other words...

It would work.

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"Demon! You are charged with the direct intent to destroy our town! How do you plead?" Laughter rose up from the crowd as Sesshomaru, lashed to a post, stayed silent, even though he had been de-netted. Instead of being trapped by a net, now he was having issues because of the ropes. Aatu, also, had not been able to free himself of the entrapment, and was still hidden in Sesshomaru's tail. In any case, the ropes served the same purpose as the net, to keep him from speaking or moving. The humiliation was compounded by the fact that they had taken his armor and his weapons, piled them tauntingly in front of him. The 'judge' continued. "Since you say nothing in your defense, this court finds you guilty as charged, to be burned immediately!" The people gathered around him cheered enthusiastically. "Torch bearer, step forward."

As he waited to be burned to death, Sesshomaru heard a familiar voice push through the crowd of ecstatic people.

"Excuse me, pardon me, sorry, please move..." Soon he saw the black head of Sky moving toward him. She walked right up to the pole that he was tied to and lifted it free of it's moorings in the ground. The village people watched wide eyed as one woman carried away what had taken twelve men total (including those who carried Sesshomaru and Aatu) to carry there. Their courage fled in one giant scramble, thought the people remained rooted to the ground.

One finally gathered enough of the fleeing courage, though, to step in her path.

"What are you doing?" He demanded. Sky blinked at him and smiled.

"This demon belongs to me. I'm taking him back."

"How are you able to lift that?" A voice shrieked from the mass. "DEMON!" The crowd took up the cry, remembering and garnering bravery from their new weapons. The man who had spoken to her raised his hands.

"This is no demon! A demon could not lift this stone, nor come near these bonds without being frozen! You know this as well as I!"

"Then how does she do it?" The man considered the pretty, slender woman with the beautiful smile. The demon lashed to the stone over her shoulder seemed both awe-inspiring and rather out of place. The answer came to him.

"She must be a Goddess!" He cried, bowing deeply to the woman, that full prostrating bow, with his head in the dirt, hands stretched out before him. Sky winced as the rest copied him, and sent a look at the frozen Sesshomaru.

"Perhaps this will be harder then I thought..." She said to him. Then she turned back to the man, who was now looking up at her with adoration on his face. Sky was, to say the least, uncomfortable with being worshiped.

"My Lady! Won'st Thou stayst with us poor lowly souls but for an hour? It wouldst be the greatest honor, to bask in Thy holy light for even the shortest period Thy will grant us."

"Um... Sorry, I can't. I have important, uh, goddess-like business to attend to, and it's very urgent, so..." The person who had first cried her demon spoke up again.

"She does not glow! She does not speak in the proper and very boring and probably wrong manner! This woman cannot be a goddess!" They all looked at Sky for a rebuttal.

"Uh..." She shifted Sesshomaru to a different shoulder, and Aatu, no longer able to tighten or loosen his grip with every bounce, reached the end of the long hair he had been sliding down this whole time, and fell to the ground. No longer in contact with the ropes, he began to crawl toward Sky, giggling.

The townspeople were amazed.

"Look! The Goddess doth cause the male demon to give birth! Surely, if thy wretched souls had any doubts, they are gone!" The man who had started this whole goddess business shouted.

Sesshomaru was radiating hatred right about now.

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_W.W. - I might have to go into hiding once his lordship is unfrozen..._

_Sky: Probably. _

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"Look, people, could you be serious and stop talking like that for a minute? This is my demon, that's my demon baby, and I really have to go." She saw their blank faces, and sighed in frustration. "Look! Behold My glory!" She raised Sesshomaru on the stake high above her head, and tossed it a couple of times. They all 'ahhed'. "I am the goddess Sky Pyre! If ye do not want thy pathetic souls crushed and fed into the flames of My eternal funeral fires, ye shall part and let Me pass!" Scurrying, they all tried bowing and getting out of her way at the same time, then gave that up and just ran to get out of 'The Goddess Sky Pyre's' way. Tossing Sesshomaru's armor over the unoccupied shoulder and tucking the swords into separate belt loops she watched them trip over themselves. Taking measured steps, Sky realized that her mother's preaching on the correct way to walk finally came in handy, and to the people's eyes, she seemed to float out of town. _(There really is a way of walking that makes it look like that too, though usually only if you're wearing very long dresses... Shh. I won't tell if you won't.)_

Once out of sight, she put the stake down , anchored it to the ground, and leaned against it, wiping her forehead. She grinned at the still attached Sesshomaru.

"I thought I told you to stay out of trouble, Sesshomaru. Why didn't you listen to me?" The sense of hate became stronger, but Sky only laughed. "Now now, none of that, or I'll just leave you tied up there. Though I suppose it's a good thing that they didn't burn you, for their sakes. I don't want to think on what I would have had to have done to them. Perhaps that's what the talking tree meant by 'the look of my soul'." Aatu, who she had picked up on her way out of town, giggled. With a sigh, she started to untie the demon. "It was nice for there to be a reason for your silence, for once."

The last rope fell to the ground, and she lifted Sesshomaru away from them, so he too could move. Dusting himself off, he sent daggers at her with his eyes. Sky was stunned.

"What? I saved you."

"You could of gotten hurt," was out of his mouth before he could stop it, and his eyes grew wide as he realized that he had, as a matter of fact, said that out loud. They didn't even compare to Sky's though.

"I... um... well..." There was a storm breaking inside her head; with one motion she launched herself at him, this time not as a tackle, but as a hug. "I'm just glad you're okay." She whispered.

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_Inuyasha: Whispering I want to gag, but I don't want Kagome to kill me..._

_W.W. - Also whispering Can't help you there, dude..._

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Sesshomaru stared down at the black haired head that was pressed into his armor-less chest, amazed.

It was nothing next to Sky's amazement as the dog demon returned the hug. The new emotion was enough to tip the scales, and actually make her cry. Sesshomaru felt the wetness seeping through his shirt, and was horrified. 'Did I hurt her?' He thought irrationally. She tilted her head to look up at him, and smiled, confusing him more.

"I'm really glad you're okay, Sesshomaru. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been." Before he could react, and before she could lose her nerve, Sky kissed him, for the second time. This wasn't no short one either.

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_W.W. - Hee! _

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But half the reason it wasn't a short one was that Sesshomaru wouldn't let her go when she rather feebly tried to pull away. The last time she had kissed him, he had wanted it to last longer, and by Kami, this one would.

When she finally was able pull away, Sky was thoroughly bedazzled. Her head swam somewhere up above cloud nine, and she smiled goofily at Sesshomaru. Everything had a gently gold cast to it.

"That," she said softly, "was very nice." A faint, slightly arrogant smile touched Sesshomaru's lips.

"Yes. It was." Looking over her shoulder, though, he saw something not nice at all.

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The night before 

Maliha commandeered three rooms back at the Research Center, after going back on the shuttles. One for each of her boys, and another for herself and her husband. After settling in for bed, they began to talk and plan the next day.

The next day 

The four of them got off to a late start, barely opening their eyes before seven, and slowly getting ready to go to the sites by eight. After two verbal fights and three all out brawls, they had gotten fed and to the shuttles, fortunately on time. The archeologists gave them all a wide berth. They had no idea who these strange people were, that got special treatment, but they weren't going to possibly jeopardize their lives by making friends. Even if the two younger males were incredibly attractive. The older one was also handsome, but he was obviously taken by the petite woman.

The brothers, however, felt no need to stay away from any and all pretty females on the bus, and soon had quite a few tripping over themselves to tell them all they knew about Sky.

"On the very first day, I thought that girl was weird," one claimed. She had no clue that she was talking to the girl's brother. More importantly, the girl's older, overprotective brother, who had personally chaperoned many of Sky's dates, and had joyfully beaten the shit out of every person who had broken her heart. No sign of this was on his face, however, as Desan continued to listen sympathetically to the human woman's story. "I had been walking down the hall to my room, and had heard a scream. I know it sounds stupid, but I went to see if the person was alright. You see," her voice lowered to a whisper. "some of the men here have been here for a while, and they can get really desperate." Her voice became normal again. "Anyway, I went to see if she was alright. She was fine! She was just sitting there, with spaghetti dangling out of her mouth." The woman shuddered. "What a savage." Desan chuckled, and moved on.

Another female was telling A'Dyn, through the many giggles she was sprouting, that Sky had just been downright stupid.

"She missed the shuttle on the first day, can you imagine that? I think there was something seriously wrong with her, you know..." She made a swirling motion by her head. "I think she was crazy. Because after the first day, she just wandered around, giving away perfectly good one-pieces. I took one, because it was my favorite color." She giggled. "Do you know what color is my favorite?" A'Dyn shook his head, though it was perfectly obvious. The girl was only wearing one color.

"No, what is it?"

"Pink!" She shrieked, and laughed at her little joke. Whatever it may have been. I don't know. I don't speak pink.

The shuttle ride ended without too many major mishaps... except the one. An older man had overheard Desan and some woman discussing Sky, and had decided to put in his own two cents.

"Damn! I know the girl you're talking about! She had a _fine_ body, with the cutest ass I ever did see!" Here he chuckled. "I woulda had her on her back in three seconds if she hadn't a turned up missing–" And here Desan decked him, plowing across his jaw, and knocking out more then four teeth. This was after the man had moved back, so he only got grazed. If he had just stood there and taken the punch... He'd of been a dead man.

"That girl is my sister, and if I ever hear you talking about her like that again...!" Desan let his threat dangle in the air as he was pulled away by his brother and father. There was a silence for the rest of the shuttle ride, but thankfully that was only a couple of minutes long. Desan sat between his mother and his father, glaring resentfully at everyone. The man he had punched had been moved to the very front of the shuttle, where they luckily had some medics aboard.

Upon reaching the site, they ran into none other then Captain Thompson West himself. Poor man, he screamed and ran away, causing Maliha to smile in a very satisfied, evil manner. Aditya gave his wife a questioning look.

"What did you say to him? The part that the whole world couldn't hear?" She blinked innocently at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, dear. I was, as always, a lady, and neither did I raise my voice nor threaten the good Captain in any way. That would be bad manners." Aditya sighed. Asking was pointless. They got down to business. "Alright, Desan, A'Dyn, you two get to stay here and ask around for anything that they might know about when your sister disappeared. Meet with us at Sky's site about noon. Try not to kill anybody." They began to walk away, and Maliha shouted after them, "OR EACH OTHER!" They waved in acknowledgment. "Dear, you and I get to go to Sky's area, and see what is to be seen. Apparently the asshole in charge was making her work the whole area alone... It's about a mile radius, so we have a lot of work ahead of us. Are you ready?" He gave her a very tired smile. Damn. More walking.

"Of course, love. Let's go." Husband and wife walked the twenty minutes to Sky's site.

There was little enough there: some digging equipment, footsteps, dust, and craters. Occasionally there was a hole where it was evident Sky had started digging. But other then that, nothing but air. Still, they searched the rocky, lumpy land until noon, when their sons caught up with them.

"Mom, dad, did you find anything?" A'Dyn asked, wiping away the sweat on his forehead. Aditya shook his head.

"No. Nothing but dust." There was a moment of silence, then Maliha spoke up.

"That means nothing! She's still here, she couldn't get off the planet without them knowing. So, if we keep looking, we shall find her!" She looked at their tired faces, and smiled. "But first, let's find a place to have lunch." The three men cheered. Maliha shaded her eyes against the sun and looked around for a flat spot. Finding one, she pointed it out, and that's where they sat to have a wonderfully prepared capsuled lunch (-).

And promptly fell through... To another world.

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_W.W. - I think I want to leave you there..._


	19. Is There An Echo In Here?

_**Ch.19**_

_**Is There An Echo In Here?**_

_W.W. - Hey, people! Just me here. I'm sorry if I made you mad with all the leaving-off-ness. But then again... Lol jk. I made up the title of this chapter just kind of randomly... we'll see if it has anything to do with the story or not... But I like it, so it stays. The Well is very bored. And when the Well gets bored, the world has to pay... Damn, what else was I going to say? Oh, yeah, just to be sure..._

Disclaimer: _I do not own Inuyasha. I do not own anyone on that show. I want to, and I am secretly cloning them, but currently, I do not. (Except for the few living in my closet... How the hell do closets get mentioned so much in here? HELP!!! CLOSETS ARE TAKING OVER MY BRAIN!!!) But that reminds me of a funny story... Anyway, I do not own anything but the plot, the characters that I made up, and Sesshomaru's left arm. Remember, I told you that he 'never lost it'... Lol ttyl people._

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Maliha sat up, gently rubbing her tender head. "Ow..." Her eyes went wide. "Aditya... _look_." She pointed away from them all...

And toward a home that would look familiar to any Inuyasha fan. A girl with long black hair stood on the step, toast halfway to her mouth, bag in the process of being thrown over her shoulder. She stared at the family with big eyes. They were staring, but not at her. No, they were much more fascinated by the rest of the world.

"This looks like the chrannies (That's the textbook version of a cranchite. Of course they're all technically the same thing, but as there's a difference between the words 'Textbook' and 'Book', there's a difference between 'Cranchite' and 'Chrannies'. The 'h' was added after the 'C' because otherwise it would be 'crannies'... and that's a real word, according to my computer... I'm just rambling. .U Sorry) back in school, or the pictures Sky has posted all over her room (And that makes sense too. I mean, we have buildings or at least I do... of ancient civilizations posted on our walls, but those buildings were once as everyday to them as a skyscraper is to us... Weird thought, ain't it?)." A'Dyn said. "Weird. I thought they would be bigger then that. You know... that tall pointy thing... what's it called..." Desan sighed.

"It's amazing you ever even got through school at all, little brother. They're skycutters."

"Wrong. They're skyscrapers," Maliha cut in. A'Dyn started laughing tauntingly at Desan, and that of course started a brawl between the two. For once, their mother didn't step in. Instead, she spoke to the young girl on the step. "Hello. My name is Maliha Pyre. Has my daughter, by any chance, been through here?" Aditya stood behind his tiny wife, laughing. That was his girl, never shaken up, taking everything in stride. It was one of the qualities he loved about her. The black haired girl blinked, and answered slowly.

"My name is... Kagome. Um... who's your daughter?" Then she shook her head rapidly. "Wait, wait a minute. Did you just come from the WELL?" Maliha was about to answer when a young man with white hair and dressed in very bright red came through the door. He wasn't looking where he was going, and therefore didn't see the party in the yard.

"Kagome, when are we going to go? This place reeks of mortal, and we have to kill..." he ran into her. "Watch where you're going!" he yelled, holding his nose, which had slammed into the back of her head. Once he opened his eyes again, he saw the people in the yard. "Who the hell are they?"

"Uh... I'm not entirely sure..." Kagome said. "I think... they came through the Well."

"Don't be stupid, Kagome. That's impossible."

"How dare you be so rude to this nice young lady?" Maliha demanded indignantly. "As a matter of fact, we did come through that hole in the ground right there. Please, Miss Kagome, just answer my question. Have you seen my daughter?"

"You still didn't tell them her name, dear," Aditya put in, but quietly. She shot a look at him and he smartly went away, to stop the brothers from fighting. Maliha turned back to the duo on the steps. She sighed.

"Let's try this again, shall we? Hello. My name is Maliha Pyre. That's my husband, Aditya," she pointed at him, and he waved. "And those are my sons, Desan and A'Dyn." The woman indicated each accordingly. "What are your names?"

"I'm Kagome, and this is Inuyasha. Pleased to meet you. Who's your daughter that you are looking for?" Maliha smiled. It was going much more smoothly now, and her sons had even stopped beating the crap out of each other... for the moment.

"My daughter's name is Anata Sky Pyre, though generally we just call her Sky, and–"

"That wench is your daughter?" Inuyasha interrupted. Maliha looked startled and pleased.

"You know her?" Inuyasha growled, looked away, and started kicking at the wood under his feet. Kagome grinned.

"Yes ma'am, we know her. She kicked Inuyasha's butt, more then once."

"Shut up, Kagome!" Inuyasha snarled, and she sent a threatening look at him, mouthing the word 'sit'. His anger grew, but he didn't say anything more. Maliha winced and sighed.

"Yes, that's my daughter. Self-restraint has never been one of her strong points, I'm afraid. So, is she here? Where is she?" Now Kagome, instead of looking smug and annoyed at the hanyou, looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I don't know. You see, this demon, I mean..."

"Oh my god," Maliha breathed. "She's not dead, is she?" The alien's face became extremely pale, and Kagome was horrified, realizing her mistake at just leaving the sentence off like that.

"Oh, no! At least, I don't believe she is. I don't think Sesshomaru would–" Inuyasha snorted.

"Of course he would. He'd kill the human in a heartbeat if he thought she was even the slightest bit annoying." Maliha began to look faint.

"Aditya!" She cried, and he was there immediately. Throwing herself into his arms, she sobbed, "My baby's dead, she's gone, my poor baby girl, why did I let her come here?" Aditya couldn't say anything, just stood there, holding his wife with a stunned look on his face. A'Dyn sat down hard on the ground, looking like he had taken a sucker shot in the balls. Desan, though... His appearance was thoughtful.

"Mom, she can't be dead. Think about it. 1, she's too tough for any of these primitives to kill. 2, she's not that stupid, to get herself killed anyway. And finally, 3, we're part of the Family. If she was dead, we'd be able to contact her. You know it, mom. Go ahead, ask dad to ask them." Maliha's weeping stopped, and slowly she turned to look at her husband. Hiccuping, she said,

"Would you, Aditya? Even if she is, I want to say goodbye." The tiny woman began to regain some of her composure, hope beginning to grow in her eyes (ow...).

"Of course! I should have thought of that before!" He shot a weak grin at his eldest child. "You're a true Pyre, through and through." A thought struck him, and he asked curiously, "But why won't you ask them?" Desan glanced away, and answered reluctantly,

"Uh... the Family is kind of after me... Because my practice has gotten big enough... and they're angry... I've kind of been realizing things that they have kept secret... I just seem to know it... and they don't want their secrets to become public..." He sighed at the stupidly made excuse. "I don't want to be the one to ask. I just don't want to hear it first." Aditya nodded.

"Right." He let go of his wife and carefully constructed a 'portal' by making vague, flowing motions in the air. Soon, to the eyes of the Pyre's (minus Maliha, poor woman) and, surprisingly, to Kagome, a small, mirror-like object hung in the air. A swirling, black/silver mass was seen inside it. Leaning close, Aditya whispered several of the words he had been taught before he had been banished, and the mass began to move violently. A face erupted out of it, an ever changing person who snapped,

"What do you want, Son of Fire?" The things mouth glowed red as it spoke. Kagome gasped and took a step back.

"I want information. By your true name, and by the debt you owe me, I Bind you, Grolvenke'dre, and demand answers." The thing rolled its eye impatiently.

"Yeah yeah, I know what you mean. No need for formality between friends, is there, Charles?"

"Charles?" Kagome asked, bewildered. Inuyasha looked at her like she was retarded.

"What the hell are you talking about? Charles?" Maliha was concerned with their talking.

"I'll explain later. Be quiet right now, okay?" Kagome nodded, and Inuyasha stood there, not saying he would, but not saying he wouldn't. Aditya's conversation had continued.

"Of course there's need for the formality. If I didn't say the words, you wouldn't stay for longer then it would take for you to spit on me, 'friend'. Now, I have a question for you." He took a deep breath. "Do you know where my daughter is? Is she alive? I demand the truth." The spirit sighed.

"What happened to all that 'be polite to spirits' that I hear you telling your kids? What happened to the good old days, when a simple 'Boo!' was enough to scare the crap out of anybody?" Aditya's eyes hardened, and his voice gained a deadly quality.

"Now, Grolvenke'dre. Where is my daughter? Does she live? I want the straight truth, too; no trying to bullshit me with little riddles or I'll trap your soul in a tiny little box for all eternity." The spirit shuddered.

"Your daughter is just fine. More then fine even. She's great right now. Very happy. And, she's about five hundred years in the past. Put your box away, Charles. I told you what you wanted to know. I'm leaving now." The spirit was as good as his word; he disappeared back into the mist, free to now that he had done what was requested of him, and Aditya slowly closed the portal. There was a silence, and of course it was Inuyasha who broke it. He shook his head.

"Yeah, you're definitely related to that wench. You're all just as crazy as she is, talking into the empty air. Not a brain among you."

"SIT!" Kagome yelled, and the half breed crashed into the ground. She turned back to the people. "Sorry about that. Sometimes the dog just won't stop barking."

"Oh, that's really no trouble. But do you, by chance, know how to go five hundred years in the past?" Maliha asked. It seemed high unplausible that this primitive knew anything about time travel when their own scientists had yet to master it, but she wanted her baby, and she would ask every person on the planet if it meant that she would get there.

Just her luck, this particular primitive did. Kagome nodded, happy to be in the story once more.

"I do! We go through the Well." She pointed at the hole that the family of five minus one had just come through. Maliha shook her head.

"We can't do that, that's the portal to the future, that we just came from. If we go back through, we might as well go home."

"It's the only way into the past. It's always worked before, excusing the two times that your guys came through and both times your daughter did. Or would that make it four?... No wonder I'm failing math. Anyway, that Well is the only way to the past, so you'll just have to trust me, okay? I was just about to go back in any case." A'Dyn finally took notice of Kagome's looks, and began to flex his muscles for her.

"Hey, after we rescue my sister, perhaps I could come back and talk to you sometime..."

"Back off, human! Get away from Kagome!"

"Oh, we're sorry, my son just didn't realize the two of you were a pair." Maliha said, making both Kagome's and Inuyasha's faces go bright red.

"We're not!" Inuyasha barked out. A'Dyn let a grin fly, and Aditya said,

"We'll take your word for it." He bowed like a gentleman. "May we go?" Kagome led the way back to the Well, and in they went, all six of them.

Desan brushed himself off on the other side, and looked around.

"Got enough trees here, don't you?" Kagome shrugged.

"Maybe. I think they're beautiful."

"Kagome! You're back! We need to talk to you..." Sango's voice drifted off, and she blushed at the sight of the older brother. That's right, Sango, demon slayer, blushed when she saw the hot firstborn of Maliha and Aditya. Desan noticed her reaction and grinned, causing her to giggle (yes, _giggle_) and stammer out, "H-hi. I'm... I'm Sango... I kill demons..." the last bit was unintentional, and as soon as it was out of her mouth she regretted it, yelling at herself, '_Damn it, Sango! You don't know if he's friend or foe, and you just go and trip all over yourself! Get a grip girl_!' The demon slayer did get a grip on herself, sobering up and turning back to Kagome. "Kagome, about this new path that we've been taking. I don't think it's the right way to go. I could swear that we've been down it before."

"Be that as it may, Sango, I sense a shard down that way, so we must go," Kagome answered, and though Sango frowned, she gave in. If Kagome said there was a shard, there wasn't much more that the slayer could do then believe her. Maliha began talking.

"I'm sure you're very concerned about your own business, but could we please take care of the matter of where my baby is? NOW?" It wasn't so much of a question as a demand. The miko blinked at the force in the small woman's voice, and as she began to answer, Miroku and Shippo stepped into the area by the Well. Maliha sighed. This was becoming a three ring circus. They would never find her baby with these people dogging her and hindering her steps. She pointed imperiously to Inuyasha. "You! Dog-man! Where did this demon take my baby?" Inuyasha snarled.

"Why the hell should I tell you, you stupid, over–" Did you get the impression that Desan and A'Dyn both had a predisposition to fight? Of course you did. So you could guess that they both attacked the mutt at the same time, right? Because that's what they did. The three fought in the dust and the dirt for a few minutes, no one else stepping in, Miroku, Sango and Shippo staying out once Kagome reassured them that the new people were friendly (sort of) and Maliha and Aditya keeping away because they knew it was a quick way to get an answer out of the dog demon. They had every confidence that their sons would win.

And they did. Soon they had Inuyasha pinned to the ground, face smushed into the path.

"Which way did she go, mutt?" Desan growled, half thinking to just kill the silver-haired guy because he had insulted his mother. But that right belonged to Maliha, if she cared to take it, which she did not.

"You'll find them if you follow this path," Inuyasha muttered.

"I'll go with you!" Shippo volunteered out of the blue. "My nose is better then Inuyasha's anyway. And he's a jerk. If Kagome wasn't around to control him–" Inuyasha would have gotten up to start beating Shippo up but he couldn't, trapped by Desan and A'Dyn like he was.

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_W.W.- Alright, I'm bored on this subject now, so let me speed you all ahead. Shippo traveled with the family after some very intense questioning from Kagome and not a few more brawls between the three younger males, which Miroku kept out of. Miyoga (Flea dude, in case I spelled that wrong) also wanted to go, because he felt that it would be safer, but Inuyasha wouldn't let him. The family and Shippo made fairly good time, double that of Sesshomaru and Sky, because they had enough of those nifty little scooters for everyone. Back to the dog demon and the alien..._

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Over Sky's shoulder Sesshomaru saw something very not nice. I think that's where I left off. Over her shoulder he could see...

A mass of new worshipers, come to idolize their new goddess.

"You," he said in a resigned voice, "certainly do create some interesting situations. It appears that your new cult is on it's way. We'll be going now." Sky scooped up Aatu as Sesshomaru gathered his armor, and they were off, the dog demon practically flying ahead, expecting her to keep up. She tried, but slowly, Sky began to lose ground, and the mob behind her seemed to be getting closer... 'Religious fervor must give you more energy then what I have' she thought, as she began to tire.

Then the alien found herself in a tree, and a now growing familiar hand pressed against her mouth to keep her from yelling. Sky remained calm, though, and identified that it was Sesshomaru by recognizing the hand and his smell. Have you ever identified someone by their smell? It's a weird day when you realize that you can. Or at least it was for me. I need to stop putting in random shit about me in here... do you realize that's the first actual swear word in a long time?

Sky relaxed into the trunk behind her, pressed up against Sesshomaru's side, the one with the tail over it. His armor was back on, somehow. Aatu wiggled his way out of her arms and deep into the fluffy mass of fur. Sky let him go. Her mind was a little overwhelmed at the moment...

What did that kiss mean? A million thoughts were running through her head.

The dog demon, once he was sure that she wasn't going to shout from surprise at suddenly being yanked into a tree, removed his hand, but kept his arm around her shoulder. It felt comfortable there. They watched as the parade of people finally passed them, Sky almost laughing at the smallest of them, children, stumbling after the adults with arms full of flowers, singing of the 'Heavenly, Merciful Goddess of the Funeral Flames'. They were adorable.

'_I haven't been a goddess for more then half and hour and already they have songs about me. These people need a life_.' In reality, they were just a village of artists, and they knew how to craft songs off the tops of their heads. Soon little statues of her would be passed around...

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes.

"The path is out. Now we must travel through the woods, taking up more precious time. Come." He dropped to the forest floor, and waited while she scurried out of the tree. Sky didn't know if she should feel offended or competent that this time he hadn't helped her out of the tree. But she did know she wouldn't be able to keep herself from asking,

"Wait, Sesshomaru, why is the path out?" He didn't answer her. A particularly loud chanting wail reached her ears right then, and Sky guessed that Sesshomaru didn't want to meet up with her new cult and be hailed as the male demon who gave birth. So she followed the youkai lord through the trees. Unfortunately...

She grew up on a S.S., and even though she had spent as much time as possible planet-side, that didn't mean she had spent a lot of time just around trees, let alone being in a forest. These past few days had been mostly tolerable, considering that they had been following a path, and not trying to stumble through the dank, dark underbelly of the woods. But now...

Now the alien was falling on her face every few steps, tripping over supposedly innocent bushes and tree roots. Getting up for the fifth time, Sky glared at Sesshomaru's back and muttered, "If you hadn't gone and destroyed my bike, we wouldn't have HAD to worry about traveling through the woods, oh no. We could have just FLOWN to where we needed to go, or close enough that we could get to the spot within seconds without breaking any of that bitch's stupid rules..." she continued muttering and walking, paying as close attention as she could to the path in front of her, when suddenly she collided with a muscular demon back.

She obviously didn't know how sharp his hearing was.

_Flying_. He winced in his head. Now why hadn't he thought of that? He could, after all, fly to where they needed to go, just as the woman had said. Sesshomaru whirled and caught her automatically to keep her from falling (because Sky just falls all the time, especially when she collides with something) as the cloud built up around their feet.

"Hold on," he said shortly, getting a firm grasp around her waist as they shot into the air, above the canopy of the trees, and out into the bright sunlight.

Now, Sky was used to flying, but not like this. She had flown on 'Crafts, on bikes, on little jet-ski-type-things, but never, _never_ on a cloud. It took a second to adjust to the sudden brightness, but once she had, the alien took full advantage to study her situation. In the future, they just didn't _have_ clouds you could fly on. It wasn't wet like clouds were supposed to be, but very dry, and lapped softly around her legs like gentle waves. The ground shot by underneath them, trees marring together into one giant green blur. The demon lord's arm was wrapped around her middle as they flew through the air, so she was certain that she wouldn't – couldn't possibly – fall. The pure air flew past her face and whipped her hair around, though amazingly Sesshomaru's stayed perfectly in place. She would have horrendous knots later... If she twisted her head around far enough, she could see the thin trail of cloud they left in their wake.

'_Ouch! Watch the spikes!_' Sky had accidentally run into Sesshomaru's armor. She rubbed her forehead ruefully where it had met with the sharp metal. Just because she was flying through the sky on a cloud with a demon in a world that was a few thousand years younger then it should be did not mean she could be careless and stab herself on the guy's armor.

Aatu giggled from somewhere in the fluff.

A tiny speck of silver broke up the green monotony of the ground below, growing larger and larger. Soon it resolved to become a waterfall.

A HUGE waterfall. Not 'large'. HUGE. It was about as wide as a 'Craft, and as tall as one stood on its rim. Even from this long distance she could see the diamond spray cascading from the deep pool below, and the gently green moss surrounding the enormous boulder outcroppings that hemmed in the pool. There were no signs of her human friends, however... as they sank lower and lower through the air, the waterfall began to disappear among the trees, blocked out by the huge limbs and gargantuan leaves.

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_W.W. - That one chick on Kill Bill (which I do not own, for those lawyers out there who would be only too happy to sue me...) was right. Gargantuan is a fun word._

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They came to earth with a soft thump, Sky managing not to lose her balance only through the virtue of the demon arm keeping her up. She grinned at Sesshomaru.

"I told you flying was the answer. That cloud thing..." she trailed off, looking thoughtful, then frowned abruptly, stomping her foot. "I want my pouch!" There were so many things she had seen that she could have stowed away! Rawr! The cloud would definitely be hers by the time the day was out, if only she had her pouch!

Sesshomaru was lost as to what she meant, but by this late in the story, he was used to it, so he ignored it. By the looks of things, this human would be one of the growing number of creatures that followed him around, so there would be plenty of time in the future to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

For now, there was the day-long wait. If they left at dawn, they could make it to the fall in perfect time to meet the noon deadline.

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_W.W. - ::mildly confused:: I'm not sure anymore when the deadline was, so it's noon tomorrow... because I forgot... because I'm stupid... - Yay!_


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